Anne Dwan is an Environmental Health Officer. She’s been with the Carlow/Kilkenny HSE South department for 17 years.
What is a typical day at work like for you?
I do predominantly food work, so food hygiene inspections, fluoride water testing, pest control, dealing with complaints and food alerts. It varies so much.
What is your favourite part of the day?
If I were to be very honest with you, it’s having a nice lunch! One of the perks of the job is knowing where all the best restaurants are.
What is the most challenging aspect of your work?
It’s very challenging having to know all the legislation. You have to think on your feet a lot. You’re assessing the structure of the premises, the operation, the meat labelling, beef labelling, country of origin, animal by-products, general labelling, oil labelling, labelling for chocolate and so on. If you went to assess a supermarket’s butcher counter, you could be there all day.
Any highlights or particularly proud moments?
The biggest highlight for me was when our area was selected as the first to get external accreditation for the ISEN ISO 9002 standard for environmental food control services. We brought a more consistent approach to assessments to make it easier for food businesses to comply with regulations. That was back in the 2000s, but it sticks with me because it was something a lot of people believed in, worked on and achieved.
What's the worst breach you ever found?
A thumbnail in some stir-fried rice. That was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve seen. The most interesting thing I’ve seen was a large blade lodged in a perfectly packaged loaf of bread.
How do you benefit from being a Knowledge Networks member?
It’s great for gaining access to recent research, recent knowledge, and dealing with industry colleagues. You can keep up to date with what’s going on, the education, the findings, the food business officers and work together from the same pool of knowledge.
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