I thank the Chairman. It is my first time before this committee and I am delighted to be here. I thank the committee for inviting myself and my colleagues before it to update members on the events and actions surrounding the feed contamination issue and the recall of pork and bacon products. In making the presentation and addressing queries, I am joined by a number of colleagues. Mr. Paddy Rogan is the chief veterinary officer of the Department. Mr. Jim Beecher is the assistant secretary responsible for the livestock sector while Mr. Martin Heraghty is the assistant secretary responsible for food. Mr. Dermot Ryan is a senior inspector dealing with feedstuffs and assistant secretary, Mr. Seamus Healy, is responsible for animal health and welfare. That is the departmental team.
If it is okay with the committee, I propose to cover three particular areas. First, the detection and cause of the problem; second, the actions taken following the detection of the problem; and, finally, the lessons learned. Before doing so, I would like to explain the relationship that exists between the Department and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. This is very useful in the context of the interactions that took place between both organisations during the event.
I should make it clear that, from the outset of the dioxin contamination issue, the Department worked extremely closely with the FSAI in dealing with the matter. The Department operates under a service contract with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. The Department first entered into the service contract arrangement with the FSAI in 2000. Our current contract runs until 31 December 2009 and is subject to audit by the FSAI. The sectors included in the contract, which is wide-ranging, are meat hygiene, milk and milk products, eggs and egg products, pesticide control services, Border inspection posts, residue monitoring programmes, the zoonoses directive and food labelling.
I want to refer briefly to the legislative framework within which we operate. European legislation governing food safety, known as the hygiene package, came into effect at the beginning of January 2006. These measures brought together, updated and consolidated earlier EU food and feed legislation. They cover all food business operators throughout the food chain from farmer to retailer.
The underlying philosophy of this legislation is that all food business operators along the food chain bear full responsibility for the safety of the food they produce, process, transport or any other procedure along that food chain. This is made possible by the development of hazard analysis and critical control point, HACCP, principles and is in line with internationally accepted procedures. These principles take into account the variety of different operations, both in terms of products and scale, and provide operators with the flexibility to adapt their "own checks" control systems to the specific requirements of their operation.
Part of the hygiene package requires member states to produce a single, integrated, multi-annual control plan which covers development and performance of official controls in the following sectors: food law, feed law, animal health rules, animal welfare rules and plant health rules. The objectives of the national control plan for Ireland are in line with those established in EU hygiene legislation. The primary objectives are to ensure feed and food is safe and wholesome, and to protect consumers' interests. This is achieved through ensuring food and feed business operators fulfil their primary legal responsibility to ensure food and feed safety. It is also achieved through the organisation of official controls to monitor that the relevant legislative requirements are fulfilled by food and feed business operators at all stages of production, processing and distribution.
The approach taken in Ireland is to foster a culture of compliance through the use of risk-based controls which protect public, animal and plant health without imposing unnecessary burdens on the food and feed business operators that are subject to these controls or on the authorities that are responsible for undertaking official controls on behalf of the taxpayer. This national control plan is submitted to the Commission through the EU Food and Veterinary Office, FVO, and is used by it as a basis for audits in the sectors concerned.
On the chronology of events, the dioxin contamination originated in the detection by the Department, for the first time since the national residues programme began, of dioxins in food of animal origin, specifically pork fat. I will outline in chronological order the events which led to the detection and the identification of the source of the dioxins from 19 November when the sample of pork fat was taken, up to the interdepartmental agency meeting on Saturday, 6 December 2008. This was the date when the decision was taken, on the recommendation of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, to require the food industry to recall from the market all pork products. I will also refer to some other subsequent dates and events that were of importance.
Since the initiation of the incident, the Department, together with the FSAI and other agencies, has worked through the various priorities — protection of public health, restoration of consumer confidence, securing the future of the industry, and maintenance of markets and our national reputation as a food producer and exporter. Those priorities are quite important, as will become clear later.
On Tuesday, 19 November, an officer of the Department took routine samples, under the national residue monitoring programme, of pork fat from pigs slaughtered at a plant in Drumlish, County Longford, and submitted them for analysis at the Department's pesticides control laboratory in Backweston, County Kildare. On Friday, 28 November, the analyses/results indicated the presence of marker polychlorinated biphenyls, more commonly referred to as PCBs. In accordance with standing procedures under the DAFF/FSAI service contract arrangements, the FSAI was advised of these findings at the time. The source of the pork was immediately identified back to a farm in County Cork. While at this remove, the time lag between the taking of the samples and receipt of the analysis results may seem inordinate, it should be noted that this was a routine monitoring sample, that the time period involved seven working days and that it takes up to three days to complete the laboratory testing procedure.
On Saturday, 29 November, samples were taken of all the different types of animal feed used on that farm — ten in all, including the dry bread — and these were sent to Backweston for priority analysis. On Tuesday, 2 December, the Department's laboratory indicated that the dry bread was positive for marker PCBs. The source of the dry bread was immediately identified back to a registered surplus food recycling plant in County Carlow. Given the link between PCBs and dioxins, the samples were taken immediately by a Department official to the Central Science Laboratory in York for further analysis.
On the issue of availability of dioxin analysis facilities in Ireland, it is useful to point out that the State Laboratory has indicated that it will be in a position to carry out such tests in the early part of 2009. To be clear, the initial testing which began this process was in regard to PCBs, which are markers for dioxins. The subsequent further analysis was done in the UK.
Department personnel visited the food recycling premises in County Carlow on 2, 3 and 4 December to collect all the relevant samples and gather all the necessary information. A list of farms which received feed material from the premises was compiled and samples, both current and library going back to late July 2008, were submitted to the laboratory in Backweston for analysis for presence of PCBs. I remind the committee that feed business operators, as part of their registration obligations under the feed hygiene regulations, EU Regulation 183/2005, are obliged to retain samples of manufactured products.
On Thursday, 4 December, Department officials commenced visiting all the identified pig and cattle farms. All bread product remaining on the farms was impounded and restrictions were placed on the movement of animals from these herds. On the same Thursday, a Department press release also issued indicating that a number of herds had been restricted following the identification of marker PCBs.
On Friday, 5 December, the authorities in the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland, DARDNI, were informed and a list of farms was forwarded to them indicating that bread product from the premises may have been delivered to those farms. On the same day, Friday, 5 December, the Dutch authorities, following sight of the Department's press release, contacted the Department and the FSAI about an independent investigation into the presence of PCBs in pork fat samples originating in Ireland.
On Saturday, 6 December, an interdepartmental agency meeting was convened to assess the emerging situation. This meeting was attended by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Minister for Health and Children, the Chief Medical Officer, the FSAI and officials from the Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Health and Children. In light of the assessment of the position and possible implications, the Taoiseach subsequently joined this meeting. At 3.40 p.m., the Central Science Laboratory in York confirmed to the FSAI the presence of dioxins in the pork fat samples. Following on from the meeting, the FSAI decided that it was necessary for the food industry to recall all Irish pork and bacon products from pigs slaughtered in Ireland since 1 September.
The 1 September date was chosen on the basis of the evidence available to the FSAI. In making the decision for a total product recall, account was taken of the fact that the ten pig producers affected and associated farms involving 17 separate production units nationally accounted for some 8% of the national kill, or approximately 50,000 pigs slaughtered between 1 September and 1 December 2008. Taken together, they supplied eight of the ten main abattoirs in the country, which account for about 98% of the national throughput of pork.
Running in parallel to all of this was ongoing activity to identify the cause of the contamination and to put in place arrangements for the recall of the feed material impounded on the farms. In addition, meetings were held over the weekend of 6 and 7 December last with representatives of the pig processors, producers as well as retailers. The meetings with the pig processors continued over the following days.
In the meantime, on Monday, 8 December, results of samples for non-dioxin "marker" PCBs taken from 11 of the 45 cattle herds initially restricted were received and, on the basis of those results, the FSAI on Tuesday, 9 December, concluded that there was no public health issues arising.
Results for "marker" PCBs for samples taken in the remaining cattle herds became available the following weekend. Results for dioxins in the beef samples were subsequently received on 17 December. On Thursday, 18 December, the FSAI, on concluding its assessment of the these results, published a statement which indicated, based on food consumption data, that the exposure from beef was 300 times lower than that posed by the contamination found in pork.
Additionally, it was confirmed that of the 120,000 cattle farms in Ireland, only 21 had been identified as having received the implicated animal feed. As a precautionary measure, on the recommendation of the FSAI, a decision was taken to slaughter and remove from the food chain all animals in these 21 herds.
A significant amount of the Department's time, with the assistance of the Garda and the EPA, has been devoted to identifying the cause of the contamination. Given that the issue is the subject of a Garda investigation and may be subject to litigation, I am constrained on how much can be said at this stage. However, laboratory tests have indicated that the source of the contamination was the use of contaminated or inappropriate oil to fire the burner used for generating the heat to dry the bread.
On the pigmeat recall scheme, following the events of 6 December there was intensive discussions with the pig processors to facilitate the resumption of slaughter. Financial assistance by the Government was agreed given the impact of the product recall on the industry and for the culling of pigs and cattle.
A facility of up to €180 million has been made available through the pigmeat recall scheme. The scheme is confined to processors who have suffered losses as a result of the recall and to product relating to animals slaughtered in Ireland between 1 September and 6 December 2008 which cannot be shown to be uncontaminated. Payments are being made on the basis of weight and category of product in store, which is being presented for rendering. We have made 64 payments to date, totalling some €35.4 million.
EU state aid approval for this scheme was obtained from the EU Commission on 24 December 2008. The scheme document for the pigmeat recall scheme was published by the Department on the same day. The scheme document sets out detailed terms and conditions for the payment to processors, as well as outlining the principal controls to be applied at site level.
In addition to state aid approval, EU funding of up to €20.7 million has also been obtained for some elements of the process, that is, the destruction of up to 130,000 pigs, 7,000 cattle and 9,050 tonnes of pig meat. During the days following the recall, there was intensive contact between the Department and the Commission. The Minister, Deputy Smith, spoke to Commissioner Fischer Boel to update her on our actions and to seek EU assistance. He also spoke to Commissioner Vassilou, who is the Commissioner for public health.
The very exceptional decision to co-fund part of the recall was taken on foot of the support received from the 27 Heads of Government at the European Council which expressed "its support for Ireland's effort to deal with the situation relating to pigmeat and its prompt precautionary action". The Council furthermore invited the Commission "to support farmers and slaughterhouses in Ireland by way of co-financed measures to remove relevant animals and product from the market". Clearly, we were very pleased to receive this practical demonstration of support for our actions in this matter from our European partners. I would like to take this opportunity to record our appreciation for the strong support and positive approach of the European Commission and other EU institutions throughout this episode. Up to 4 January 2009, some 50,000 pigs had been slaughtered. A further 40,000 will be slaughtered by the end of this week. All carcases and other animal by-products are being dealt with as category 1 animal by-products as defined in EU regulations. They are being disposed of as category 1 waste at an approved rendering plant with the incineration of the rendered product. Arrangements are under way for dealing with the slaughter of approximately 4,500 cattle. Material from the product recall is classified as category 1 animal by-product under Regulation 1774 of 2002. The options available for disposal are rendering at category 1 rendering plants or incineration.
In a guidance document published on 10 December 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency recommended disposal by rendering of contaminated pork goods in the commercial chain at one of the four facilities licensed by the EPA and permitted by Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to process category 1 material. The EPA also recommended that meat and bonemeal produced during the rendering of the affected meat goods should be disposed of by incineration or by combustion as part of a process that complies with the waste incineration directive. The EPA also recommended that tallow oil produced during the rendering of the affected meat should be disposed of by incineration or by combustion at a temperature of 850° Celsius for two seconds. This would allow use of the tallow as fuel within the rendering plants in question.
The Department held discussions and reached agreement in principle on 15 December 2008 with the rendering plants about their role in disposing of the recalled pork produce and culled pigs arising from the dioxin incident. The objective of the discussions was to bring a swift and effective conclusion to this aspect of the problem. It is envisaged that the disposal process through rendering plants will take a period of weeks as the material concerned is additional to the normal flow of material. In the product recall process, we are looking to all parts of the food chain, from producer to retailer, and to the financial institutions to exhibit solidarity and work with us for the long-term benefit of the industry. I emphasise the need for co-operation and solidarity across all the sectors involved in this regard.
I wish to address some of the specific questions that have been raised by the committee. I was asked about the proportionality of the State's response to this crisis. I have explained why it was necessary to recall all pork and bacon products. I contend that the approach taken to the management of the incident was correct. It demonstrated how seriously Ireland takes any questions about the safety of its food products. It is clear that the decision to recall all pork and pork products had significant financial consequences, but the damage would have been far more severe and long lasting if it had been decided to allow possibly contaminated products to remain on sale to consumers. This may have irretrievably damaged Ireland's reputation as a producer of safe and quality food. Members will recall that in 1999, a similar dioxin contamination incident in another country was handled quite differently. It led to the recall of all animal products from that country, and resulted in long-term reputational damage. The actions taken in our case allowed Irish pork to be back on the shelves within a week and confirmed the priority that Ireland attaches to consumer health.
I wish to speak about the issues of traceability and the monitoring of licensed premises. Under national and EU legislation, pig farms must be registered with the Department. Pigs leaving holdings must be identified by slap markings or eartags and movements must be accompanied by despatch documents and be notified in advance to the Department's database. Traceability of pork at slaughter and thereafter is on the basis of production batch. However, it should be pointed out that the traceability system at farm level enabled the Department to move immediately from positive samples at slaughter to a farm and feed supplier and to all the customers of the feed supplier in question. The Department is examining the potential to improve pork traceability in order that in the event of recalls arising in future, it may be possible to reduce their impact.
With regard to the monitoring of licensed premises, the Department's national feed inspection programme and national residue monitoring programme, which operate in accordance with European Union legislation, are part of an overall integrated annual control plan for Ireland. The national residue programme involves a risk based sampling regime under which upwards of 30,000 samples are taken from across the food chain and tested for more than 200 possible contaminants.
Council Directive 96/23, which is the EU framework legislation for national residue plans and animals and animal products, does not have a requirement for dioxin testing. However, following the Belgian dioxin crises in 1999, the Commission indicated that any positive PCB result should be followed up by dioxin testing on the samples concerned.
Ireland is fully compliant with EU requirements in terms of its level of testing for PCBs. In 2007, a total of 487 samples were tested across the entire range of animals and animal products, including 74 samples from pigs and 112 from bovines. While final data for 2008 are not yet available, a total of 351 samples were tested on a routine basis up to the end of November, including 100 from bovines and 57 from pigs.
Until the positive PCB finding on 28 November 2008, no positive findings had been made under the national residue plan. Of the pig herds — other than that which showed positive on 28 November — which were initially restricted on the basis of having received bread crumb from the manufacturer concerned, three samples had already been taken routinely — on 15 April, 6 August and 2 September — under the 2008 residue plan and were negative. The negative sample taken on 6 August was from the pig herd of the bread crumb manufacturer.
The national feed inspection programme involves approximately 2,400 inspections per annum throughout the feed chain. The feed inspections cover a range of areas, including imports, mills, mineral mixture plants, suppliers of surplus food for recycling and recycling plants, wholesalers and retailers of animal feed and farms. During these inspections 1,800 feed samples are taken and in excess of 7,000 individual laboratory analyses are carried out on these samples. In recent years, this programme has resulted in a number of high profile cases in which imported consignments of feed materials were impounded following the detection of bone spicules, unauthorised GM events and other undesirable substances.
The Department has a specifically trained staff unit devoted to feed inspections. Risk-based inspections are carried out at establishments covering the following aspects of the feed chain: import amounting to approximately 800 bulk consignments; 80 mills; 17 mineral mixture plants; 90 premises supplying surplus food such as bread, dairy products and vegetables for animal feed and two recycling plants; 812 grain intake depots and retailers and wholesalers of animal feed; 967 transport operators; and a sample of 900 farms, including those involved in the home mixing of animal feed. The level of inspection and analysis carried out by the Department complies with and in many cases exceeds the requirements of EU legislation.
In accordance with the risk assessment, it was considered appropriate to inspect the food recycling premises on an annual basis. The premises in County Carlow was inspected in 2006 and 2007 and was scheduled for an inspection in late November or December 2008. This inspection had not yet taken place.
Following on from the incident in question, the Department has identified a number of areas requiring additional attention. These include ensuring that feed business operators fulfil their legal responsibilities to guarantee feed safety with particular reference to the diligence with which they implement, evaluate and amend their HACCP programme.
Following recent discussions with other agencies involved in this incident, a number of actions have already been taken. They include: focused communication with the Northern Ireland authorities on strengthening measures with regard to oil imports as appropriate; dialogue with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Department of Communications, Energy, and Natural Resources, the National Standards Association of Ireland and the EPA on the regulation of waste oil and oil products; instructing feed business operators involved in drying grain and feed to incorporate oil specifications into their HACCP and quality controls; reviewing the risk assessment methodology of the national feed inspection programme to take cognisance of the dioxin event; and communication with other member states and the European Commission in regard to monitoring the use of oil for drying feed materials.
In addition, the Department, through the veterinary public health inspection service, is responsible for the supervision of 165 large meat processing plants, which are approved under the European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) Regulations. Of those plants, 56 are approved for slaughter, including 31 approved for bovine slaughter and 12 for pig slaughter. The Department's meat hygiene service involves audit, inspection, surveillance and checks on food business operators who carry out the slaughter and processing of meat products destined for the human food chain. There is a clear and important public health dimension to the work involved and the key responsibility is the need to verify the compliance of food business operators with EU and national hygiene legislation.
We must consider what the actions surrounding this incident have taught us as a Department. It should be pointed out that the initial indication of the dioxin contamination came from the laboratory result of a routine sample under the national residue testing programme. Our feed traceability systems worked efficiently with regard to the speedy identification of the source of the feed and to where it was distributed. While it has been suggested that unused surplus food of non-animal origin should not be used as feed ingredients, the events surrounding this incident do not give credence to that proposal.
In the first instance, investigations to date suggest that the cause of the dioxin contamination incident was a feed business operator using contaminated or inappropriate oil in the drying process. The feed materials being used, namely, low risk unused surplus food of non-animal origin, were not the source of the problem.
It has already been decided that the Department, along with the relevant agencies, will carry out a complete review of all aspects relevant to the dioxin contamination incident, including the risk assessment employed in the annual feed inspection programme. The review is consistent with the approach adopted after the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 when the Department updated its contingency arrangements in the light of the experience gained.
It is worth recalling the current market base of the sector. In 2007, some 188,000 tonnes of pigmeat product were produced here of which 129,000 tonnes were exported to over 30 countries. Those exports were valued at €368 million. The UK market accounted for €271 million of that while the other principal EU outlets were Germany and France. The main non-EU markets were Russia, Japan, the US and China. The total value of the output of the sector, including value added products, exceeds €1 billion.
In the wake of the positive dioxin test results, the Department made it a priority to ensure that our customer countries were kept informed of the actions being taken to eliminate any possible health risk and to ensure the continued safety of our product. To that end, our diplomatic missions have been most active with the relevant authorities in our export markets while Bord Bia has supported their efforts and has helped to provide the necessary reassurances at trade level. In addition, the Department has been in direct contact with various countries in regard to their inquiries about different aspects of the issue. The Department, Bord Bia and the diplomatic marketing offensive will continue to be a priority over the coming months and for as long as is necessary.
It is fair to say that other countries viewed our actions as the correct ones and indicative of the priority Ireland affords to food safety. This, along with the authoritative independent opinions, such as that of the European Food Safety Authority, about the negligible health risk involved has helped to protect our markets. There are, however, some residual issues in certain non-EU markets where our exports remain suspended. Allied to addressing these, there is a need to allay any lingering consumer concerns in our main markets and ensure that the excellent reputation of Irish pork is speedily restored.
The Department, together with Bord Bia, will be actively engaged in customer reassurance and trade promotion programmes for this purpose. The Minister, Deputy Brendan Smith, has indicated his willingness to visit particular markets if that appears to be appropriate, and he has already been to France in that context. The Minister will be participating in the forthcoming trade mission led by the Taoiseach to Japan next week. This will be an opportunity to emphasise the safety and quality of Irish pork in that important export market. The Department and Bord Bia will also be visiting other markets in Asia in conjunction with this trade mission. As I have said, whatever is needed will be done for as long as it takes by the Department and the various agencies to ensure that any issues that arise affecting this valuable export trade are dealt with on the same basis as in the past when issues arose in areas of the food sector.
On the home market, Bord Bia introduced the Irish pork and bacon approved logo to reassure consumers. This logo accompanied Irish product back to the market and was effective as evidenced by the strong sales over the Christmas and new year period. Developments will be monitored over the coming months. The independent assurances as to the negligible health risks will have helped to alleviate any consumer concerns and, hopefully, there will be little effect on consumption patterns. Relevant marketing and promotional activities can be tailored accordingly should this transpire not to be the case.
In summary, the signs are that our efforts to retain markets have been successful and that customer countries have been reassured by our actions. Some problems remain in certain markets and these are being addressed. Despite all the best efforts, the industry will face challenges in the months ahead. On that account, the EU funded what is called an aid to private storage scheme, set up specially for Ireland, and this could prove to be very important. The scheme allows the temporary storage of 30,000 tonnes of product for up to six months, with a potential value of €15 million to the Irish pigmeat sector. It provides a necessary breathing space in case there are problems in the market in the coming months. This scheme was specifically sought by us as soon as the issue became apparent as a mechanism to get us over the particular period following the market disturbance.
I apologise for taking so long, but we felt that there was a good deal to be covered. In conclusion, I thank the Chairman and the members for affording me this opportunity to address the committee. I and my colleagues will deal with any questions the committee may have at this time.
