Professor Alan Reilly:

Risk assessment is required under European regulations and under domestic laws relating to food. The food control system should be based upon risk assessment. It is part and parcel of what we do in the context of categorising food premises according to risk. This is used in determining the number of occasions on which they are inspected and so on. That is all required under EU legislation.

On the question of whether we were worried, I can state that we were considering the matter. In hindsight and as matters progressed, we became more concerned with regard to equine DNA in burger samples. With regard to the sample whose meat content comprised 29% equine DNA, we were looking at a plant which produces 200 million burgers each year, and we found one burger containing that level of equine DNA at the plant. The Deputy is correct in stating that in light of the probabilities involved, this was the equivalent of winning the EuroMillions. Our discovery of a burger containing 29% equine DNA was really the basis of the statement we issued. The trace amounts of pork and equine DNA were explainable in terms of crossover, etc., but the burger to which I refer alerted us to the fact that a problem existed that we would be obliged to address. In light of how matters have developed, I am of the view that we made the correct decision.

The Deputy inquired when the Department of Health was notified. We informed our colleagues in the food unit of the Department of Health at a meeting on 7 December last. We told them that an investigation was being carried out but that there was no action required. We asked them to keep the matter confidential for the time being. Essentially, that was the message.

The Deputy also asked whether DNA matching could be used in order to focus on where the horsemeat came from. There are research techniques that can be used in this regard. I refer, for example, to using stable isotopes in order to discover the provenance of different food materials. This might work with equine material and we are looking into the matter.