Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 December 2013
189. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which full enforcement of traceability in respect of all meat and meat products imported into this country including description and origin is now applied; the number of breaches of any such regulations recorded in the course of the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53578/13]
View answer190. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which food and food products labelling continues to be enforced; the extent to which any breaches were identified in the past 12 months to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53579/13]
View answer191. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which a means can be found to ensure that where a combination of meat or meat products exists in a particular form, clear indication of the content is provided on the label in a traceable form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53580/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 189 to 191, inclusive, together.
Food production and labelling rules in the European Union operate in accordance with harmonised rules and member states controls are subject to audit and supervision by the EU Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) of the EU.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) under the aegis the Minister for Health has overall responsibility for the enforcement of food safety and labelling requirements in Ireland. It carries out this remit through service contracts with my Department and other agencies including the Health Service Executive (HSE), Local Authority Veterinary Service and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority.
Under current EU regulations, origin labelling is only mandatory for fresh beef and meat coming form third countries. However, new implementing rules on country of origin labelling for fresh, chilled and frozen sheep, goat, pig and poultry meat were adopted by the European Commission last week. These new rules will apply from 1 April 2015.
In relation to traceability, EU Food Hygiene Regulations stipulate, among other things, that there should be ‘one up, one down’ traceability at each point along the food chain and I am satisfied that food business operators in this country generally meet that standard.
The total number of infringements relating to breaches of labelling and traceability legislation during 2012 is as follows:
- Beef labelling: 1,147
- Traceability: 2,923
- Country of origin for beef: 2,598
- General labelling: 2,107
These infringements relate to both domestically produced and imported food inspected in Irish food businesses. Other than the statistics given on beef labelling, these figures cover all food products and are not limited to meat and meat products.
There have been seven successful prosecutions relating to traceability and labelling non-compliances from the period January 2012 to date.
