The Supermacs Fast Food chain has been fined £350 and convicted of breaching food hygiene regulations at two restaurants in Galway. Supermacs founder and owner, Pat McDonagh, was said by his legal representatives to be "gutted" by the prosecution - his first in over twenty years. Supermacs, which has 41 restaurants nationwide, blamed a problem with management at the two locations for the hygiene breaches. The company said that Mr Donagh had not been made aware of the problem at the time.
An environmental health officer described equipment in the kitchens of one of the restaurants as filthy and said that a box of raw chicken was being stored beside mixed kebab salad in breach of food regulations when she inspected the Supermacs restaurant at Newcastle Road, Galway on October 7th last year. Another inspection at the company's main city restaurant at Eyre Square on September 13th led to a second prosecution when an officer from the Western Health board found filthy electrical cables hanging over and touching breakfast plates in the kitchen. A dirty staff apron was stored on top of a mayonnaise bucket on the same occasion.
Convicting Supermacs, Judge Garvan paid tribute to the company owner. He said Pat McDonagh was a great success story and could have not achieved such success unless he had maintained the highest standards at his restaurants. "They have taken on the other Big Mac" Judge Garvan said, "but there was a certain laxity in the restaurants concerned." Judge Garvan praised the Western Health Board for rigidly imposing such high standards and said there was a necessity for rigorous hygiene standards in the food area.
The Western Health Board told the court the two restaurants had first been visited on June 17th last year, three months before the prosecution, and that it had found similar complaints in relation to food hygiene.
