The Food Standards Agency NI took the case against Shane Doherty (46), a registered milk producer from the Garryduff Road in Ballymoney for breach of Hygiene Improvement Notices.
Coleraine Magistrates Court heard that inspectors from the Department of Agriculture Agri-food Inspection Branch (DARD AfIB), which carry out dairy farm hygiene official controls on behalf of the Food Standards Agency in NI, had issued repeated requests to Mr Doherty to make improvements on his dairy farm.
When he continually failed to do so, DARD AfIB inspectors issued six ‘hygiene improvement notices' in June 2014. A subsequent inspection confirmed that none of the notices had been complied with and FSA began legal proceedings.
Mr Doherty breached the hygiene legislation in a number of ways including having broken window panes, damaged walls and unscreened vents in the dairy, allowing access for birds and vermin. There were also dirty stalls and damaged windows in the milking parlour.
Maria Jennings, Director of the FSA in NI said: 'Where food business operators – and this includes farmers – employ unhygienic practices and consistently fail to comply with the requirements of the hygiene regulations, we will take action against them.'
At an AfIB inspection in December 2014, it was found that Mr Doherty had completed all the actions stipulated in the Hygiene Improvement Notices, although this was after they had expired.
