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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 5 Nov 2003

Vol. 573 No. 4

Written Answers. - Food Labelling.

Joe Costello

Ceist:

125 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his views on a recent survey by the Irish Farmers' Association which found that some outlets were selling beef originating from outside Ireland as Irish; the steps he is taking to curb such practices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25577/03]

It is a matter for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, in conjunction with local authorities and health boards, to address alleged breaches in the retail and catering sectors and I understand the FSAI is following up the matters raised. I have been concerned for some time about the issue of food labelling and, for this reason, I established a widely representative group to examine the matter, which reported to me on 10 December 2002. On the basis of the recommendations of the food labelling group I took a number of actions which included arranging for the centralisation of control of food labelling in the FSAI; pursuing with the EU Commission the question of extending the beef labelling regulations to the catering sector; and asking the consumer liaison panel to carry out market research to identify consumer requirements on the origin of meat, including beef. While beef imports constitute a small fraction of our overall production and exports, it is absolutely essential that EU labelling requirements are applied to all beef sold on the domestic market, irrespective of origin.

Seán Ryan

Ceist:

126 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps he intends to take on foot of the annual report of his Department's consumer liaison panel published in August 2003, particularly in regard to food labelling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25589/03]

The consumer liaison panel was established in January 2002 to strengthen communication between consumers and our Department. Meeting the requirements of the consumer is vital to the future of a progressive multi-functional agri-food industry, encompassing not alone the basic function of food production but also food safety, food quality, environmental and animal welfare issues. The panel is representative of general consumers. During 2002 the panel discussed a number of issues ranging from food safety, to country of origin labelling and food prices. The key issue identified by the panel was food labelling and it recommended that we examine this issue.

As a result of this recommendation and the concerns that we already had on this issue, we set up the food labelling group in July 2002 to examine the issues of concern to consumers in regard to labelling. As part of the exercise, submissions were invited from any interested parties. A large number of submissions was received and examined by the group from a wide spectrum of individuals and organisations. In December last, the labelling group presented its report to us. It contained 21 recommendations covering general labelling rules; policy and enforcement; consumer education and awareness and origin.
We accepted the recommendations of the group. As the recommendations covered issues within the responsibility of a number of Departments and Government agencies, we set up an interdepartmental agency group to progress implementation of the recommendations. This group includes representatives from our Department, the Departments of Health and Children, Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, together with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the Food Safety Promotion Board.
I am pleased that considerable progress has been achieved in implementing the report. In particular, the centralisation of enforcement of food labelling regulations in the Food Safety Authority will be completed shortly. Good progress has also been achieved on other issues such as allergen and nutritional labelling, industry responsibility for clear labelling, food labelling in school curricula and substantive transformation.
One main issue, the food labelling group recommendation on the origin of meat, has occupied a lot of the time of the consumer liaison panel this year. The group recommended that consumer research should be carried out to establish how origin of meat should be defined and also the effectiveness of the beef labelling regulations. At our request, the consumer liaison panel drew up a strategy for this research and has commissioned same. At this stage, the research is almost completed and I expect the consumer panel will report on the results before the end of this year.
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