A west Cork seafood company has been ordered to pay fines and costs of more than €50,000 for exporting hundreds of tonnes mussels which were contaminated with shellfish toxins.
More than 200 people in France are alleged to have become ill after eating the mussels, which were produced by Bantry Bay Seafoods.
The company also pleaded guilty to obstructing an investigation set up to identify and recall the contaminated product.
Bantry Bay Seafoods was established in 1991. The company says it is the biggest producer of farmed mussels in the country. It employs more than 100 people and exports the mussels all over the world.
On 21 March last year the company was informed by one of its customers in France that some of its mussels had been implicated in a food safety scare.
The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, which took this case, alleges that more than 200 people became ill after eating the mussels which were infected by a naturally-occurring toxin. The company claims there were only three cases of illness.
At the District Court in Bandon today, Bantry Bay Seafoods and its Managing Director, Paul Connolly, pleaded guilty to a total of 11 charges which included allowing contaminated mussels on the market, failing to comply with hygiene requirements and obstructing the investigation subsequently set up by the Sea-Fisheries Protection Agency.
Micheal O'Mahony, who headed up the investigation, said his officers were drip-fed information which resulted in contaminated mussels remaining on the market and consumers being put at risk.
Judge Leo Malone ordered the company to pay fines and costs of almost €55,000.
The company accepted that it had been misguided and wrong and said steps have been taken to ensure that this will never happen again.
