The 1860 Act for Preventing the Adulteration of Articles of Food and Drink established a new Local Authority Official - The Public Analyst. In 1862 Dublin became the third city in these islands, after London and Birmingham, to appoint a Public Analyst.
Dr. Charles (later Sir Charles) Cameron had an extraordinarily long tenure as Dublin Public Analyst from 1862 until 1921. Then Bernard Fagan was then Public Analyst from 1921 – 1956, followed by Harold Thorton from 1956 to 1967. Dr. Fergus Hill was Public Analyst for 30 years until 1997 and then Kevin Moyles up until 2005. Dr. Michael O’Sullivan was appointed Public Analyst in 2007. Dr Andrew Flanagan was appointed Public Analyst in 2019.
In the early days the laboratory, then known as the City Laboratory, was located in Castle Street in Dublin. Subsequently, it moved to the Cornmarket/Lamb Alley area. In 1996 having outgrown this location it relocated to the former Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital in Lower Grand Canal Street Dublin, where it still resides.
The laboratory has been transformed into a modern food safety facility which plays its full part in ensuring that, with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the Environmental Health Service and other agencies, the food available for the Irish consumer is safe and wholesome.The Dublin Public Analyst’s Laboratory (PAL) is an Official Food Control laboratory within the Health Service Executive (HSE). It is administered by the HSE Health and Wellbeing within CHO6/CH East. The laboratory provides both a chemical and microbiological analytical service to the HSE Dublin-Mid Leinster and Dublin-North East, equivalent to a population of over 2 million.It provides a national service in the area of its specialisations.
Last updated 23/09/2022
