Meat Processing Plant Inspections

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 February 2019

Wednesday, 27 February 2019

Ceisteanna (162)

Michael Fitzmaurice

Ceist:

162. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 184 and 185 of 20 February 2019, if the daily system check carried out at the start of each day in meat plants is overseen or carried out by Department officials; when a mechanical grading machine is found to be working out of sync following an inspection, the number of carcasses graded earlier that day by that machine that are rechecked manually, not in real time, to determine the accuracy of the grade and to pinpoint the stage at which the mechanical machine fell out of sync; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9876/19]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1184 of 20 April 2017 governs the monitoring of carcase classification, carcase presentation and weighing.

The overall performance of a machine is determined by officials from my Department. All carcasses are checked normally in real time on the slaughter line or on occasion in the chilling rooms to determine machine score. There is no mechanism to permit an officer to pinpoint exactly when the machine went out of tolerance.

The daily system check carried out at the start of each day in meat plants is carried out by the plants as part of their standard operating procedures and is not overseen by staff from my Department.

The number of Department inspections conducted annually significantly exceeds the legal requirement for the minimum number of inspections set down in EU legislation. In 2018, my Department conducted almost 550 inspections. This is an average of 20 inspections per factory per year, which significantly exceeds the legal minimum requirement of 8 inspections per year. At each inspection an average of 85 carcasses were inspected for correct classification and carcase presentation. The legal requirement is 40 carcasses per inspection.