EHO Madness

Just a couple more examples of the madness of the EHO (environmental health officers) that are attempting to ruin everything that is good about Irish food (mainly its flavour). Remember these people have similar powers to a Garda Seargant and can shut a food business down instantly. Here are some examples I have heard over the past year -

- The EHO that wants to shut down the meals on wheels service for old and sick people because the premises the food is cooked in does not have a second sink
- The EHO (the same one as above) that made a butcher put in a second sink at a cost of hundreds of euro because the second sink he did have was 3 steps away from the other sink.
- The EHO that threatened to shut down a restaurant in the west of Ireland because she found dirty unwashed potatoes in the prep room. After it was explained that these potatoes had been dug by the chef that morning and would be washed before being taken to the kitchen she was slightly mollified but she strongly recommended that vacuum packed washed peeled potatoes (with no nutritional value) should be used in future.
- the EHO that harassed all cheese stalls out of the markets of the south east. She just kept finding fault until they left for good - in particular she wanted all cheese sellers to have fresh running water at their stall. (thankfully it was a different EHO to the one in the west or she might have driven the farmers out with all their disgusting dirty vegetables - "why cant these people grow their vegetables in sterile environments instead of resorting to putting them in the filthy earth!" is no doubt what she would have said.
- the EHO that went ballistic at the fish stall also in the south east becuase her thermometer probe found the ice on the fish stall was at 18 degrees celsius. She relented somewhat when it was explained that she had pushed the probe through the ice box to the other side and was actually taking the temperature of the air and that ice remaining solid at 18 degrees was rather unlikely.
- the EHO that effectively shut down the egg producer becuase she had the audacity to want to introduce new hens to her flock. The egg producer couldnt afford to build a second hen house as requested by the EHO, and as the current stock of hens were not producing enough eggs to make the business sustainable she was forced to give up altogether.
- the EHO in the north west that will allow one of the best butchers in the region sell his fresh blood black pudding in his own shop but not in the shop next door. This amazing product could compete with the best boudin noir of France, Spain and Italy but it will never be allowed to do so because he is forced to use inferior dried blood for any puddings sold outside his own premises.
- the EHO that visited a raw milk cheese maker while the owner was conveniently on holiday and bullied the staff into scrubbing the maturing room with disinfectant thus killing all the good bacteria that made the cheese. It took over a year for the cheese to even begin to resemble what it did before.

The Dept. of Agriculture inspectors are just as bad and in one instance they confiscated cheese from a cheesemaker because they were worried about infection in the cows the milk came from, but yet once the cows were slaughtered they were happy to allow the meat to be sold. The Dept. has virtually wiped out all the small abbatoirs in the country so animals are forced to travel long distances before slaughter causing distress (and affecting the quality of the meat). Trevor Seargant is talking about opening some again but I am not holding my breath.