FSAI recalls spinach and mixed leaves products over listeriosis fears
Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI)
.
Recall notices will be displayed at point of sale in stores, with the below branded products being recalled:
McCormack Family Farms Energise Super Mix, 100g
McCormack Family Farms Irish Spinach Leaves, 100g
McCormack Family Farms Irish Spinach Leaves, 200g
McCormack Family Farms Irish Spinach Leaves, 250g
McCormack Family Farms Mixed Leaves, 75g
McCormack Family Farms Baby Leaves, 100g & 200g
Tesco Mild Spinach, 350g
Egan's Irish Baby Spinach, 250g
Earlier this week, 141 ready-made meals produced by
Ballymaguire Foods
were
recalled from several Irish supermarkets
in connection with an 'extensive' outbreak of the rare bacterial infection listeriosis. The FSAI confirmed that
one adult has died
as a result of listeriosis, while nine cases of infection were identified.
[
What is listeriosis and how serious is an infection?
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]
Symptoms of listeria monocytogenes infection can range from mild flu-like symptoms to gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. In rare cases, the infection can be more severe.
READ MORE
Some people are more vulnerable to listeriosis, including pregnant women, babies and people with weakened immune systems, including the elderly.
Retailers are now requested to remove the implicated products from sale, and consumers are advised not to eat them. Further information on the recalled products, including their best-before dates, is available on the FSAI website
here
.
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Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
When you're in perimenopause and have a newborn baby at the same time
After Dublin mother of one Lorraine Heffernan had her daughter, Ava, now three, at the age of 45, she didn't think about perimenopause. 'I thought there's no way I could be menopausal,' Lorraine says. 'I've just had a baby. That's years down the line.' Yet, by the time Ava was two, Lorraine's hormones were 'all over the place', though she was out of the new-baby phase. Her mood was not as good as it should have been. 'I wasn't feeling as energetic or upbeat as I normally would. Ava has been a great sleeper since very young, so why was I feeling more tired than usual when I was sleeping well?' Through research, conversations with friends, and the launch of a menopause policy in her Dublin City University workplace, the Stepaside-based mother realised she was most likely in perimenopause. Lorraine Heffernan: "I thought there's no way I could be menopausal, I've just had a baby, that's years down the line." Picture: Gareth Chaney Lorraine came forward for interview for this feature after menopause workplace consultant Catherine O'Keeffe put out a call on her network for women prepared to talk about being in perimenopause soon after having a baby. Within days, 20 women had responded. 'It's a big challenge for a lot of women,' says O'Keeffe. 'Starting a family is happening later. And a lot of women are starting to feel perimenopausal before the average age of 45.' Catherine O'Keeffe of the Menopause Summit Fiona Buckley, 44, a Dublin-based empowerment coach and keynote speaker, began having what she now knows were perimenopausal symptoms about a year after having her daughter, Sadie, seven. She attributed the tiredness and brain fog to the postpartum phase. But the symptoms never went away. 'My GP and friends who'd had babies said 12 months postpartum these should be going away, but they weren't. They were only getting compounded, new ones being added on. That's how I knew.' Fiona Buckley began having what she now knows were perimenopausal symptoms about a year after having her daughter, Sadie, seven. She attributed the tiredness and brain fog to the postpartum phase. But the symptoms never went away. Initial misdiagnosis Emily Collins who got her first symptom of menopause at the age of 36 when her second daughter was six months old. Picture: Moya Nolan Emily Collins, mother to Ava, seven, and Niamh, five, was 36 when she attended the GP with her first symptom, six months after giving birth. Her usual GP was away and the male replacement attributed what she was experiencing to thrush. 'We never thought it was menopause, because I had a six-month-old. I was treated for thrush — it went on for nine months.' 'Between life, lockdown at the time, and children, I just ignored it. My second symptom came in summer 2021, just after I'd had the covid vaccine: Very heavy periods. I'd heard that the vaccine could cause changes to the menstrual cycle.' But by October, sweat dripping off her as she packed to go home to Wicklow after a visit to her parents' house in Clare, realisation dawned for Emily. 'My cousin, 10 years older than me, is a big menopause advocate. She'd just started her menopause journey and was very vocal about symptoms. I began to put two and two together: Maybe there's another reason I'm sweating and anxious, have heavy periods, and extreme tiredness. Maybe it's not just having a newborn.' Discovering that her mother had been 'in the throes' of menopause at 43, Emily says: 'But when did her first symptom start?' A visit to her own GP brought some relief. 'She sent me for blood tests. They were normal, but because of my symptoms she wasn't convinced I wasn't in menopause.' A stint on the Mirena coil didn't help. An oestrogen patch brought a better result. 'Within three weeks, I wasn't sweating to the same level. I wasn't anxious or tired and it just got progressively better.' Confusing symptoms At her Ashe St Clinic in Tralee, Dr Karen Soffe, GP with an interest in women's health and specialist with the British Menopause Society, has seen women who were in perimenopause soon after they had a baby. A few issues are at play. 'Women are having babies later and, therefore, the gap between their postnatal period and the start of perimenopause can overlap, making it difficult for women to realise what's going on.' In addition, some of the symptoms — fatigue, low mood, lack of sleep, and brain fog — can be put down to 'baby blues' or 'baby brain' and be misdiagnosed. Deciding whether 'this is post-natal depression, perimenopause, or just having a new baby can be a very big challenge', says Lorraine. 'I don't know if you'd know where one starts and the other finishes.' Recalling her return to work when Ava was seven months, she says: 'Going into a room, I'd be saying, 'What have I come in here for? I can't remember'. Remembering people's names, the title of something, my mind would go blank. And I'd be thinking, 'Is it baby brain or brain fog?' Now I'm realising it was a bit of both. 'Any mum will be anxious with a new baby: You're on high alert. Anxiety symptoms are heightened in perimenopause: Waking up in the middle of the night, your mind racing, finding it hard to go to sleep. If you're irritable or snappy, is it because you've a very active, strong-willed, fabulous little girl who's trying and testing you, or is it because your hormones are acting erratically?' Recalling the succession of symptoms, Fiona says: 'One minute, you're trying for a baby, then you've had the baby, and then you have all these symptoms coming at you in force. First, I thought it was part of being a new mom, just motherhood. I didn't put it down to perimenopause.' Whether 'it's my body settling down after having a baby, or I've gone full throttle into menopause' is a cloudy area, says O'Keeffe. 'If you are in perimenopause, unless you have a good doctor you'll probably spend a while thinking 'Am I going mad?'' Emily feels fortunate her doctor listened to her. 'She didn't say, 'Look, the bloods indicate there's nothing going on'.' But Fiona says women don't always respond optimally to other women who are wondering if, post-birth, they're in perimenopause. 'A lot shut me down. They said, 'Oh, you're not, you're just tired after having a baby'. Women can do that to each other, fob each other off. It made me question myself a lot.' As a woman in her mid-40s having her first baby, Lorraine feels that more health-service awareness of her life stage would have helped. 'Nobody said, 'You're at a certain age now, perimenopause might be kicking in'. Nothing like that was ever mentioned, not even at the check-ups. The community health nurse would ask 'How are you feeling, how's your mood?' There was no mention of perimenopause. I think it's another piece of information to make women aware of.' Two times of life colliding Unsurprisingly, perimenopause can make new motherhood even more challenging than it already is. One symptom that Emily says really upset her, prior to getting good treatment, was the anger she would sometimes feel: 'The girls were two and four when I was going through that, and something as simple as them taking a while to put on their shoes going out, I'd get cross about, and there was no need to get cross like that. I think it impacted the relationship I had with them. And it was because I wasn't myself.' Lorraine says being a mother and having perimenopause is two conflicting elements in one. 'You're striving to be the best mom you can be. You don't want to be reacting in certain ways. You want to have a certain tolerance threshold, regardless of what timeframe your body clock is working to.' Fiona took a while to accept that perimenopause came so soon after her baby. 'It feels like you have two stages of life overlapping. You're trying to enjoy your baby and you're hit with a complete other stage of life. It feels like you've been fast-forwarded and you're trying to slow it down.' Soffe says that perimenopause, at the best of times, coincides with a stressful phase of most women's lives, what with elderly parents, career pressures, teenagers, and financial worries. 'Perimenopause can make women struggle with mood, anxiety, multi-tasking, or juggling all the things they previously managed with ease. Adding a new baby or toddler in to the mix can be overwhelming.'
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, July 29th: On the HSE's lost millions and funding services, the All-Ireland and women, and Gaza
Sir, – Is it not galling for the thousands of parents who rely on service for their children and adults with an intellectual disability to read; 'Ten of millions in HSE money lost, say auditors,' (July 26th) when those who provide these services are subject to a punitive 'value for money' penalty annually and are starved of the necessary funding to provide the services that are so obviously needed? The hope of a residential places for my 41-year old daughter was just this week ended by a letter from the chief of the service provider she attends stating that; '[it has] paused acceptance of new referrals to the residential wait list…we continuously seek funding for new premises from the relevant departments, but applications to date have not transferred to appropriate housing'. Today, there are hundreds of parents like myself and wife in their 70s and 80s providing full-time care for their adult children with an intellectual disability. With no certainty as to what will happen to our daughter when we are no longer able to provide the care she needs, we live in dread for her future. READ MORE In the context of the auditor's report is it not an indictment of the political system that no one can answer my simple question; 'what will happen my daughter when I die?' The wanton waste and lack of accountability by the HSE and our politicians, while not surprising, is nonetheless, staggering. – Yours, etc, TONY MURRAY, Chairman, Before I Die, Fairview, Dublin 3. Air drops, Gaza, and protests Sir, – Air drops are costly, inefficient and dangerous. Crucially, they do not address the significant risks of refeeding syndrome. When a population has been starved or malnourished for a period of time, they require careful reintroduction of appropriate specialised foods to avoid overwhelming the metabolic processes. Failure to firstly provide appropriate electrolytes to the starved, instead giving random quantities of non-specialised food through air drops, can lead to cardiac abnormalities, delirium and death. This is known as refeeding syndrome and is well known in the humanitarian and medical spheres. This is another example of the damage that removing humanitarian access from Gaza has done, and makes the cynical performance of air drops even starker. – Yours, etc, DR LISA McNAMEE, Dartry, Dublin 6. Sir, – I wish to support the proposal for a national day of protest (Letters, July 24th and 26th) over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Words are inadequate when faced with the starvation of men, women and children, regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, creed or religion. I force myself to watch the news and read the reports and feel ashamed because I have done nothing to stop these terrible atrocities or help the poor victims who continue to suffer, day after day. There is pain on both sides of any conflict but the civilians in Gaza are bearing the brunt of the war. A national day of protest, a demonstration condemning the atrocities inflicted upon the civilians in Gaza, would garner support from all corners of our society. – Yours, etc, HELEN MURRAY, Church Street, Dublin 7. Sir, – Liz O'Donnell proposes a national day of protest over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza (Letters, July 26th). Has she missed the 16 national demonstrations held in Dublin calling for an end to the genocide organized by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign since October 2023? Or the thousands of locally organised solidarity actions and events that have taken place across the island these past 21 months? Ms O'Donnell praises the 'courageous stance taken by the Irish Government' on Gaza so she clearly has no issue with the US military using Shannon Airport to transport arms and personnel or Israeli war planes flying through Irish airspace, or the Central Bank facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds. Or Ireland's export of more than €97 million worth of dual-use products to Israel since October 2023. If protests were enough to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, then it would have happened by now. What is needed is immediate Government action that ends all complicity with Israel's genocide in Palestine. – Yours etc., STEPHEN McCLOSKEY, Director Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Sir, – Two letters published in The Irish Times (July 28th) on Gaza have shredded any illusion that there does not exist in Ireland a strong feeling that Jews, everywhere are to be blamed collectively for the actions in Gaza of the Israeli government. Chris Fitzpatrick, announcing himself as a Christian, quotes the Bible to provide evidence of how Jewish teaching is being eschewed by Israelis and then demands that 'Jewish people need to raise their voices in protest'. Angela Currie informs us that Israeli and diaspora Jews are not aware of the suffering in Gaza. She, too, demands that Jews stand up and 'shout your disgust'. The one-sided media narrative in Ireland has created unprecedented anti-Jewish sentiment, increasingly isolating the Jewish community here. Would the letter writers not have considered the same call to Muslims, to condemn the indescribable cruelty and moral corruption of Hamas? Does Mr Fitzpatrick's christianity not motivate him to urge Christians everywhere to stand up against Russian aggression in Ukraine where every single one of the ten commandments has been turned on its head? There are millions of Jews in Israel, in the diaspora, secular and religious who are protesting against the Israeli action in Gaza. You may have to wander outside the Irish media bubble to find them. To quote Matthew 7:5 'Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.' – Yours, etc, CATHERINE PUNCH, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. EU-US trade agreement Sir, – The trade agreement just agreed between the US and EU provides for a 15 per cent tariff on EU goods entering the US, but I can find no reference to a reciprocal tariff on US goods entering the EU. Is it the same as the 15 per cent applying in the other direction or some other figure ? Can we assume the EU will apply an identical or at least similar tariff ? If not we are entitled to know why there is no such tariff is being applied. The EU has agreed to buy large amounts of US goods. Has the US in turn agreed to buy a similarly large amount of EU goods. If not why not ? – Yours, etc, NIALL LOMBARD, Mount Merrion Co Dublin. Phone alone Sir, – We visited our son in the Gaeltacht at the weekend. He looked healthy and happy and not at all suffering from withdrawal symptoms from only being allowed access to his phone for 15 minutes a day. Sounds like a route back to full health and happiness for us all! – Yours, etc, BRIAN QUIGLEY, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. GAA women, and All-Ireland football finals Sir, – Congratulations to Kerry for winning the Men's All-Ireland Football Final. Note my addition of 'Men's' at the beginning of the sentence which all of the media insists on omitting. The omission of 'men's 'presupposes that the football final is the only one. However, the Women's All-Ireland Football Final is on August 3rd. The first women's GAA football final was played in 1974, 51 years ago! Why then presume Sunday's final was the only one? Words matter. – Yours, etc, CARMEL WHITE, Castleknock, Dublin. Sir, –The Kerry victory against Donegal arrived in the nick of time to save Gaelic football from extinction. What a relief to see a return to high fielding, long distance kicking and a plethora of scores on a regular basis. The data driven obsession, borrowed from soccer and American football, with its clichés about zonal defence, dominating the middle third, edge of the D, outside and inside the arc, and so on ad nauseam, had made this relatively simple and spontaneous game the world's most boring, and unwatchable, except for scoreless soccer games. At last the new rules have liberated natural and skilful athletes like David Clifford and Michael Murphy to keep going forward toward goal and not sideways and backwards in a dreary process of endless handball, that former greats like Mick O'Connell would not recognise at all. The two points from long distance and long kick outs from the goalie have also helped, but backward handpassing should be banned completely. Gaelic football still has a long way to go to equal the wizardry and skill of hurling or rugby at its best, but at least it is finally going in the right direction. – Yours, etc, MAURICE O'CALLAGHAN, Stillorgan, Co Dublin. Sir, – New rules, what new rules? Surely what we witnessed yesterday represented a step backwards for the once great game of Gaelic football. For 80 per cent of yesterday's game, what I witnessed was field basketball with flashes of real football thrown in to break the silence. Back to the drawing board? – Yours, etc, NIALL GINTY, Killester, Dublin 5. Sir, – Ian O' Riordan's tribute to the great Con Houlihan ('T he gospel of Kerry football according to Con Houlihan ,' July 26th) was beautiful and timely. Con surely would have enjoyed Kerry's victory while being 'befuddled' by the July so. If the GAA gets its hands on Christmas we will be celebrating it in October ! – Yours, etc, JIM CAFFREY, Dundrum, Dublin. East is West Sir, – In Saturday's Irish Times, the Reuter's article 'Trump to mix golf with politics on Scottish visit', it was stated that Turnberry is on Scotland's east coast and Aberdeen on Scotland's west coast. In fact, Turnberry is on Scotland's west coast and Aberdeen is on Scotland's east coast. – Yours, etc, JOE KEARNEY, Castleknock Dublin 15. Truth and reconciliation Sir, – Edward M Neafsey is absolutely right in pointing out one of the key limitations that prevents many victims and survivors of the Troubles from engaging with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) to secure truth and, or justice for them, (Letters, July 23rd). But in fairness to the ICRIR this is not the commission's fault, it is due to basic defects in the Legacy Act and implicit in its terms of reference, which the current British government is attempting to address now. We also believe that the lack of any form of conditional amnesty for former combatants is a key factor in ensuring the full facts of many legacy cases never see the light of day and that former miscarriages of justice are not addressed. Time to do so is rapidly slipping away, especially for the most violent years up to the end of 1976 when most people were killed or injured. One major problem is the insistence by the authorities and by some victims groups that cases can only be addressed through the criminal justice system. As one of the most distinguished and authoritative contributors to the debate, Tom Hadden has pointed out in the latest issue of Fortnight, 'In reality, the two objectives of truth recovery and reconciliation require very different skills and formal powers'. The ICRIR may be salvageable as the investigatory body or one devoted the reconciliation, but it cannot be both. As currently constituted it is primarily an investigatory one, as required by the Act. However, we believe that a narrow ground has emerged in the debate that suggests there is a path between protected disclosure and conditional amnesty that can provide for truth recovery and reconciliation through mediation as an alternative to the existing processes and procedures. With this in mind, we are proposing to hold a conference on October 18th, at Queen's University, Belfast, at which we hope to address the realistic options for unshackling the present and the future from the perpetual legacy wars. These include continuing access to the courts for all Troubles-related criminal and civil cases and continued use of the ICRIR for those who seek to access its services. We are also proposing the speedy conclusion of all outstanding public inquiries and access to a mediation process based on our conditional amnesty proposals. In addition, we propose the establishment of a Joint British-Irish review body to monitor progress in all of these areas. The conference should be taking place shortly after the UK Supreme Court has given its decision on the British government's appeal against the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal decisions upholding objections to the current legislation. – Yours, etc, HARRY DONAGHY, Northern Chair, JOHN GREEN, Southern Chair, PADRAIG YEATES, Secretary. Portmarnock, Dublin 13. A good deal for religious bodies Sir, – Liam Herrick ('I'm angry that my abuse as a child does not count – State must pay for school sexual abuse', July 28th) observes that, in relation to implementing national child protection measures, the State 'cannot outsource that responsibility to religious organisations, nor hide behind procedural defences'. One might add: 'like it outsources education to religious organisations and hides behind procedural defences when it comes children's constitutional right not to attend religious instruction.' What a deal religious organisations have in this country – education is outsourced to them, but funding and liability are not. They remain with us taxpayers. – Yours, etc, ROB SADLIER, Human Rights Officer, Education Equality, Rathfarnham, Dublin. Handy tip for looking busy Sir, – Ruby Eastwood ponders the nature of work: ' The greater part of any job is learning to look bus y,' (July 26th). I absolutely concur. Walking the corridors or through an open plan office with a file under your arm seemed to work best. – Yours, etc, MIKE MORAN, Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Almost a quarter of doctors in Ireland work more than European limit
The regulator for the medical profession in Ireland has raised concerns about patient safety and doctor wellbeing after new data found almost a quarter of doctors report working more than European limits. The Medical Council today publishes its 2024 annual workforce intelligence report, which found there were 20,962 clinically active doctors working in the State last year. According to the report, almost a quarter of doctors (23.1 per cent) self-reported working more than 48 hours on average per week, in contravention of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD). The EWTD seeks to safeguard the health and safety of workers by setting minimum standards for working hours and rest periods across the European Union. READ MORE The disciplines most likely to indicate working more than 48 hours a week were surgery (50.9 per cent) and obstetrics and gynaecology (34.9 per cent). Among doctors who reported working more than 48 hours per week, 45.6 per cent also reported working in direct patient care for more than 48 hours per week. The report said this 'raises concerns in relation to doctor wellbeing and patient safety, as excessive work hours are demonstrably associated with attrition, stress, burnout and are predictive of adverse event involvement'. For the first time, doctors were also asked about their views of patient care and safety. Just over one quarter (26.1 per cent) reported experiencing difficulty providing a patient with sufficient care at least once a week or more frequently, while slightly more than one-third (33.6 per cent) reported never experiencing difficulty. 'Pressure on workloads' was the most commonly cited barrier to providing sufficient patient care, with 73 per cent of doctors reporting this. It was followed by 'time spent on bureaucracy/administration', at 55.1 per cent, and 'delays to providing care, treatment and screening', at 46.1 per cent. According to an analysis of the medical register, the mean age of doctors was 43.7, with one in five aged 55 or older. The highest number of clinically active doctors was concentrated in disciplines of general practice (25.9 per cent) and medicine (23.4 per cent), followed by surgery (11.9 per cent). The report also highlighted a continued reliance on international doctors, who now account for 27.8 per cent of the workforce. The most common country of qualification for international graduates was Pakistan, accounting for 39.7 per cent of the international graduate cohort, followed by Sudan at 21.3 per cent. Last year, 1,632 doctors left the Medical Council's medical register. The majority of these were voluntary withdrawals. Of the doctors who voluntarily withdrew from the register, 58.8 per cent (603) said they wanted to practise medicine in another country, while a further 14.5 per cent (149) said they wished to stop practising medicine.
