Food safety watchdog accused over contaminated water response

The country’s food safety watchdog was tonight accused of failing the public after it did not warn over potentially dangerous contamination of bottled waters.

After testing more than 950 batches of drinks late last year, inspectors found 10 samples contained a strand of the E.coli bug and another 6.3% carried bacteria known as coliforms.

No public alerts were issued over the infected water.

Fine Gael’s Andrew Doyle accused the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) of keeping people in the dark.

“At the very minimum last year, the entire batch of contaminated water should have been recalled and the public informed,” he said.

Mr Doyle said the FSAI and the National Standards Authority of Ireland has serious questions to answer.

“They were set up to provide independent analysis on food quality and to keep the public safe and secure,” he said.

“They have failed.”

Sean Sherlock, Labour spokesman on agriculture and food, said it was unacceptable to expose consumers to health risk.

“The FSAI should make clear why it believes that is acceptable to keep this vital information from the public,” Mr Sherlock said.

The FSAI claimed it took immediate steps to prevent health risks with water companies taking bottles off the shelves and improving hygiene standards at their plants.

The authority also insisted it only issues public warnings or alert notices if businesses fail to act on an inspector’s initial finding or if there is a grave and immediate threat to public health.

The FSAI later claimed the tests carried out revealed a strand of E.coli which does not pose a serious health risk.

An FSAI spokeswoman claimed the contamination, which included 7% of water tested containing E.coli or the coliform bacteria commonly found in faeces, was not putting people in grave danger.

Dr John O’Brien, FSAI chief executive, said: “Corrective actions are taken at the time.

“We do not wait until a report is compiled – if foods are found that are not compliant with the food safety legislation, then immediate action is taken.”

The findings are included in a report, due to be published in the next fortnight, which assessed bottled water quality in the last four months of last year.

Environmental health officers took samples in supermarkets, small retail stores, vending machines, pubs, hotels, restaurants and ethnic stores.

The water companies have not been named.

Dr O’Brien added: “The presence of coliforms in bottled water does not necessarily indicate a risk to consumer health.

“Any breach is unacceptable and we are satisfied that appropriate actions have been taken. Industry acted responsibly and where problems were identified, the product was withdrawn and processes rectified.”