Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 451: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the legislation or regulations that apply to traceability of foods including fruit and vegetables from farm level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37783/06]

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 452: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the procedures that apply to traceability and recall of fruit and vegetables that are found to be in breach of food safety regulations when it is the producer of the product responsible for the breach; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37784/06]

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 454: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the audits carried out on production units for fruit and vegetables to ensure that they are compliant with all appropriate legislation or regulations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37786/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 451, 452 and 454 together.

Traceability of foods including fruit and vegetables is provided for in Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety. Regulation No. 178/2002 is given effect insofar as my Department is concerned by the European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) Regulations 2005 (S.I. No. 910 of 2005), as amended by the European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 387 of 2006). Under Regulation 178/2002, all food business operators must have a traceability system in place to identify from whom and to whom a product has been supplied.

Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the hygiene of foodstuffs lays down general rules to ensure food safety throughout the food chain, starting with primary production. Those rules include the keeping and retention of records relating to any use of plant protection products and biocides, any occurrence of pests or diseases that may affect the safety of products of plant origin and the results of any relevant analyses carried out on samples taken from plants or other samples that have importance to human health. Regulation No. 852/2004 is given effect insofar as my Department is concerned by the European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) Regulations 2005 (S.I. No. 910 of 2005) as amended. The powers of authorised officers under those Regulations include the seizure or detention and/or prohibition or restriction of the movement of any food or foodstuff. Regulation 178/2002 also obliges food business operators to take action to withdraw products from the market where there is reason to believe that food which has been imported, produced, processed, manufactured or distributed is "unsafe".

Other Regulations to implement Regulation No. 852/2004 have been adopted by the Minister for Health and the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.

These Regulations are part of the overall EU Hygiene Package which is a suite of 5 regulations which came into force on 1 January this year. They replaced or updated a series of some 17 EU Regulations some of which dated back to the 1960s. My Department carried out inspections and other control procedures under these earlier regulations and continues to do so under the Hygiene Package. All of our control measures are subject to audit by the FSAI and the EU Food and Veterinary Office.