Popular Tipperary food business ordered to cease certain operations amid bacteria fears
Jilly and Joe’s at Dove Hill were served the Closure Order last month
A popular Tipperary food business was forced to cease certain operations last month following a HSE inspection which found evidence of failure to comply with food legislation.
A Closure Order was served on Blarney Woollen Mills Limited, trading as Jilly & Joe's at Dove Hill Centre, Ballynoran, Carrick-on-Suir.
The Closure Order directed that: Part of the activities of the business, its establishments, holdings or other premises be ceased, specifically: Cooling of cooked foods including meat, poultry, gravies/sauces and vegetables such as rice and potato.
In the report, the inspector noted that food legislation was breached as,
- Foods were not being cooled as quickly as possible or in conformance with the SOP for cooling and critical limit for cooling in the HACCP plan. There were insufficient resources to enable staff to effectively implement the HACCP based procedures relating to cooling.
- It was noted that only one of the two blast chillers was operational and kitchen staff had a narrow window of time between the end of service at 16:30, and site closing time at 18:00, to cool significant quantities of hot food.
- This poses a risk because spores of bacteria such as Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens can survive normal cooking temperatures and grow to unsafe levels during prolonged cooling. Bacillus cereus can produce a heat-stable toxin (cereulide) which cannot be destroyed by normal reheating temperatures.
The following specific issues of non-compliance were observed
- Cooked rice (a food which supports the growth of the bacterium Bacillus cereus and the formation of the heat-stable toxin cereulide) was being cooled in an approximately 17cm deep container in the walk-in refrigerator. The cooked rice was found at a core temperature of 42.4°C to 43.9°C (close to the optimum growth temperature for Bacillus cereus) at 16:52. There were no temperature monitoring records to indicate what time the rice started cooling.
- Cooked chicken fillets (a food which supports the growth of the bacterium Clostridium perfringens) were found in the walk-in refrigerator at a core temperature of 12.4°C at 16:46. This could not be reconciled with the business' own temperature monitoring records which indicated that the same food had reached a post-cooling core temperature of 2.7°C at 15:25.
- Three roast lamb joints were removed from the carvery at the end of service for cooling. At 17:19 they were at a core temperature 75.2°C on a trolley in the kitchen, but could not be transferred to the only working blast chiller at that time due to a lack of available space within the blast chiller while other foods finished cooling. After the roast lamb joints were transferred to the blast chiller, the core temperature was 56.4°C at 17:54. As all kitchen staff leave the site at approximately 18:00 there would be no staff on site to ensure the lamb cooled in accordance with the critical limit in the HACCP plan.
- Front-of-house staff were observed to transfer a bucket of hot soup (from the soup kettle in the service area) directly to the walk-in refrigerator at approximately 17:30, the core temperature of this soup was 67.0°C at 17:35 and there was no associated entry in the cooling records.
The Closure Order was served on May 7, 2026, and was lifted on May 28, 2026.