Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
905. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total amount of Polish beef being imported for further processing in meat plants; if this beef is sold on the Irish market or re-exported; the meat processors that are importing this beef; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13849/14]
View answerCSO figures show that 445 tonnes of beef were imported into Ireland from Poland in 2013. This figure is about 10% of the volume of beef which we exported from Ireland to Poland. Typically, beef imports from Poland are made up of lower value manufacturing product or carcass beef, which undergoes some further processing by Irish companies before re-export. Imported Polish beef is generally not destined for the domestic Irish market. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, I am not in a position to identify the companies concerned.
Rules on the labelling of meat and meat products are laid down in EU legislation. For beef, the current rules require compulsory origin labelling, with place of birth, rearing and slaughter specified. There is no evidence to suggest that third country beef is being imported into Ireland and processed and labelled as Irish beef.
An annual audit of imported products is carried out in each meat plant by my Department. The audit includes physical identity, labelling and documentary checks. This includes product originating both in EU Member States and third countries. In addition, labelling and documentary checks form part of the routine checks conducted by Department officials.
Checks are also conducted at retail level by the Health Service Executive (HSE), working under the aegis of the FSAI which has an overarching supervisory role in relation to labelling matters.
