Food business operators who mislead consumers in believing that food which is not of Irish origin is Irish may be committing an offence under existing food labelling legislation. Any such instances should be brought to the attention of the F.S.A.I. which is the central authority for the enforcement of food labelling.
'Substantial transformation' is a procedure used in normal business operations to allow operators to declare goods as being manufactured in the country where considerable processing has taken place. I am very concerned that this practice might be used to mislead consumers as to the origin of the product. I have raised this issue directly with the Commission on a number of occasions and indeed have been in contact with the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr. Kyprianou again earlier this year about the matter.
Subsequently the Commission decided to review EU labelling. In this context the Commission recently published a consultative document on 'Labelling: Competitiveness, Consumer Information and Better Regulation in the EU' and invited Member States for submissions by mid June 2006. My Department is currently preparing a submission in which we will again raise this matter.
The report to which the Deputy refers was an internal report of the FSAI on an audit to determine compliance with labelling and traceability requirements. The FSAI undertook this audit to determine whether food business operators in the fish, beef and poultry industries have in place a system of product traceability and recall.
The FSAI copied to my Department the findings in the Report that relate specifically to premises that come within its remit. The Veterinary Inspectorate in my Department examined each of the issues identified in the report. While some breaches of labelling legislation were noted during the audit, there was no threat to public health and all of the issues identified have been addressed to the satisfaction of the FSAI.
