FSAI enforcement orders explained: closure orders, prohibition orders and compliance notices

There is no hygiene score on the door of an Irish restaurant. The public record of food safety in Ireland is enforcement: the orders the FSAI publishes every month on its website, naming the business and the address. For a pub, café or restaurant, appearing on that list is the outcome to avoid.

This guide explains the different notices and orders, who serves them, how long they stay public, what the 2025 figures show, and the habits that keep you off the list.

Who serves them

Food law in Ireland is enforced by authorised officers. For restaurants, cafés, pubs and caterers, that's normally an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) from the HSE, working under a service contract with the FSAI. FSAI officers and, for seafood businesses, Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority officers also serve orders.

The powers come from two main places:

• the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act 1998; and
• the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 79 of 2020).

The notices and orders, from mildest to most serious

Compliance notice

Under S.I. No. 79 of 2020 (Regulation 27), an authorised officer who believes there's a breach of food legislation can serve a compliance notice setting out what's wrong and what must be done, by a specified date. The allergen regulations (S.I. No. 489 of 2014) have a similar compliance notice for allergen information. Key points under the 2020 regulations:

• you can appeal to the District Court within 7 days of service;
• failing to comply by the date is an offence, with a fine on summary conviction or up to 6 months' imprisonment, or both;
• a compliance notice doesn't stop the officer serving a closure or prohibition order if the situation calls for it.

Improvement notice and improvement order (FSAI Act 1998)

An improvement notice is served, after consultation with a designated officer, when an authorised officer believes an activity or the condition of premises will, or is likely to, pose a risk to public health if it continues. The FSAI does not list improvement notices on its website.

If the notice isn't complied with, the District Court can issue an improvement order. Improvement orders are published and stay listed for 3 months after they're lifted. Failing to comply with an improvement order can lead to a closure order.

Closure order

A closure order shuts all or part of a food business, or stops some or all of its activities.

• Under the FSAI Act 1998, it's served where the officer believes there is, or is likely to be, a grave and immediate danger to public health.
• Under S.I. No. 79 of 2020, it can be served where there is non-compliance with food legislation. In December 2025, for example, seven of the eight closure orders the FSAI reported were served under the 2020 regulations.

A closure order can cover one area (for example, only the deli or a storage room) or the whole premises. The FSAI says it may be lifted when the premises has improved to the satisfaction of the authorised officer. Closure orders stay listed for 3 months from the date they're lifted. Under the 2020 regulations you can appeal to the District Court within 7 days.

Prohibition order

A prohibition order is about a product, not the premises. It stops the sale of a particular food, batch or class of food, temporarily or permanently, where there's a serious risk to public health (FSAI Act) or non-compliance with food law (2020 regulations). Prohibition orders stay listed for 1 month after they're lifted.

Prosecution

Serious or repeated breaches can be prosecuted in the courts. Prosecutions stay listed for 3 months from the date of the hearing.

How long each stays on the FSAI list

Note the clock starts when the order is lifted, not when it's served. A closure order that takes three weeks to lift stays public for roughly four months in total.

The 2025 figures

The FSAI reported 127 enforcement orders served on food businesses in 2025, a decrease of 4.5% on the 132 served in 2024:

They were served by HSE Environmental Health Officers, Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority officers and FSAI officers across the country. Closure orders make up the large majority.

Why orders get served

In its 2025 announcement, the FSAI's chief executive pointed to fundamental breaches: pest infestations, poor hygiene, unsafe storage of food, inadequate staff training and the absence of food safety management systems. He also highlighted unregistered food businesses trading without notifying the competent authority.

The reasons the FSAI gave for closure orders in December 2025 alone included:

• failure to notify the competent authority of a food business (two of the seven closure orders that month);
• an active mouse infestation, with droppings through food storage and preparation areas;
• defective drainage and sewage, with foul water contaminating kitchen floors and food surfaces;
• unsuitable and unhygienic food and equipment storage;
• extremely poor hygiene, including heavily contaminated food contact surfaces;
• a lack of effective cleaning and disinfection procedures;
• no food safety management system based on HACCP principles;
• unsafe transport, including meat carried in an unrefrigerated vehicle.

Almost none of these are paperwork technicalities. They're the basics: register, keep pests out, keep it clean, keep it cold, train people, and have a HACCP-based system.

How to stay off the list

1. Register before you trade. The HSE says you must notify it before you start operating a food business. Failing to notify is an offence, and it was behind two closure orders in December 2025 alone.
2. Have a working HACCP-based system. For most small caterers, that means the FSAI's Safe Catering Pack, completed for your kitchen, signed and kept up to date. See our guide to HACCP for restaurants.
3. Take pests seriously. Proof the building, check regularly, and act the same day on any sign. If caterers find a problem, the FSAI tells them to contact a pest contractor immediately and to contact their EHO.
4. Run a real cleaning schedule. What, how, with which chemical, how often, and who signs. Our kitchen cleaning schedule template is a starting point.
5. Control temperatures and record them. 0°C to 5°C for chilled, above 63°C for hot hold, into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking.
6. Train and supervise. Every food handler trained to suit their work, with a record.
7. Fix what the EHO raises, on time. Under the FSAI's inspection guidance for the HSE, repeated unsatisfactory inspections lead to escalating action. Our EHO inspection checklist explains how inspections are graded.

If you're served with an order

• Read it fully and comply immediately with what it requires.
• Get advice quickly if you're considering an appeal; the window under the 2020 regulations is 7 days.
• Fix every listed item and keep evidence: contractor invoices, pest reports, cleaning records, photos.
• Contact the officer to arrange a re-inspection once the work is done.
• Review your Safe Catering plan so the same failure can't recur, and retrain staff.

Where ShiftComplete fits

ShiftComplete won't keep mice out. What it does is make the daily checks hard to skip: temperature logs with out-of-range flags, opening, closing and cleaning checklists that differ by weekday with named, timestamped ticks and optional photos, and incidents and maintenance logged with a photo and tracked until resolved. Managers see gaps on the dashboard the same day, and the weekly report shows task completion, temperature breaches and open issues. It helps you keep the records an EHO asks to see; you remain responsible for food safety.

ShiftComplete costs €1.99 per active staff member per month, free for 60 days, no card and no contract. Start a free trial.