Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 November 2004
24 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the way in which new EU proposals for food business operators, particularly official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption, will impact on farmers; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
View answerThe EU hygiene package of legislation was adopted earlier this year. This legislation stems from the white paper on food safety which was published by the Commission in 2000. That paper advocated the farm to fork approach to food safety and the setting up of the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA. Regulation 178 of 2002 has established the EFSA and provided the framework for this farm to fork approach.
The hygiene package of food legislation consists of two directives and three regulations. A regulation laying down the requirements for feed hygiene will be introduced shortly, which mirrors to a large extent the food legislation. In addition Regulation 882 of 2004 on controls deals with the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules. All these measures effectively bring together, update and consolidate EU food and feed legislation. They cover all food business operators throughout the food chain from farmer to retailer and the controls involved are operated by a number of Departments and official agencies in Ireland.
Most of the elements of the legislation referring to food and feed safety will come into effect from 1 January 2006. They also form part of the cross compliance controls for the single payment. There is ongoing consultation between my Department and a number of other Departments and agencies to finalise the implementation of all of these regulations.
The regulations will require, among other things, that primary producers are registered. While they are exempted from the requirements of HACCP, hazard analysis and critical control points, primary producers are required to follow good hygiene practice. This includes issues relating to transport, condition of animals, facilities and products. Appropriate guidelines will be drawn up in consultation with the Commission, the food business sector and other interested parties.
