Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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A question was asked about beef trimmings. Essentially, they are the bits and pieces of the carcass that remain when the prime cuts are removed. It is basically the cheap meat that does not have a market of itself. From what I have seen in the cold storage facilities in factories such as the plant in question, beef product is pushed together and then traded as an ice block of product. One reason we have been able to test samples that go back some time is that the factories have storage facilities that are run at -20° Celsius, or colder in some cases, and this allows them to store such blocks of product that arrive in refrigerated containers. Then they are used while the production process mixes the various ingredients to make the type of burger that the factory is supplying.

I wish to back up what Professor Reilly said. If a person applies DNA testing of the type applied to a murder scene, which might involve examining under a person's fingernails or testing whether there is DNA on a telephone and so on, one will pick up tiny traces of anything and everything. We need to figure out how to use this technology to ensure that if people are adding ingredients inappropriately then we can spot it quickly through testing. At the same time, we have to accept that food is not manufactured or produced in the same type of environment as an operating theatre in a hospital or a laboratory. That is not how these plant work, even if they are power-hosed, deep-cleaned, sanitised and so on. There must be some threshold which is not unreasonable and which will not cause a food scandal any time a factory is under that threshold. However, we must also have a threshold above which the consumer has a right to know. The industry accepts that this is the direction we are going now and we need to put in place a protocol to make that happen.