Juice producer in Oslo closed on the day

On Friday morning, the Police’s operational management specialist participated in inter-agency control together with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority and NAV at a juice producer in the Oslo area.

– The first impression was musty fruit and bad air, the police write in a post about the control on their Facebook page.

According to the police, the company delivered “unhealthy juice to hotels and restaurants”.

The inspection also found several faults and deficiencies associated with fire protection, ventilation and electrical systems, according to the police, who also write that the manufacturer could not present a risk assessment or action plan related to infection control.

Hastestengt

The business was closed by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority through an urgent decision.

– Among other things, we discovered a lot of musty and rotten fruit. The cold room was out of order and there were a lot of fruit flies on the premises. There was mold on the ceiling and walls in the storage room for fruit, and dirty floors and equipment in the production. In addition, there was a lack of soap and paper at the sink in the staff toilet, says Håvard Johansen at the Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s department in Oslo, Asker and Bærum to Dagbladet.

He adds that inadequate cleaning can lead to unwanted microorganisms growing up and spreading to the products, which in turn can lead to the products becoming dangerous to eat.

– Harmful to health

– Juices are products that do not require any heat treatment before consumption and it is therefore important that the products are free of harmful microorganisms. When it comes to mold, this should not occur in such products, he emphasizes.

He further says that the findings “testify to a lack of understanding of the importance of good hygiene and satisfactory operation, raw materials and equipment”.

– We assessed that the hygienic conditions were not conducive to the activity conducted there, and that there was an imminent danger of contamination of juice that was produced. There was thus a danger that the juice was dangerous to health.

Intervening

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority therefore made an urgent decision that they had to stop all production and sales.

– Closing decisions are an intrusive tool and are only used in those cases where we consider it dangerous to eat the food. A sale ban was also imposed on some goods. To be able to reopen, the company must have improved the conditions, says Johansen to Dagbladet.