Written answers

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Department of Agriculture and Food

Food Labelling

6:00 am

Photo of Terence FlanaganTerence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will raise the need for more comprehensive labelling legislation at an EU level on foot of the interagency group report on the pork dioxin contamination; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3772/10]

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The report of the Inter-Agency Review Group tasked with examining the dioxin contamination incident in Ireland in December 2008 made a number of recommendations in relation to labelling and traceability.

Firstly it concluded that the traceability system for Irish pigmeat fully complied with EU legislative requirements and was of the same standard as systems in other countries but recommended further consideration of the development of a improved product tracking systems for meat and meat products.

Specifically in relation to labelling it noted that under current EU food labelling legislation country of origin marking is required in cases where failure to provide such information would be likely to mislead the consumer to a material degree. The report emphasised the importance of food business operators complying with this legislation. It recommended that reports of breaches of the labelling regulations should continue to be followed up by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland which is charged with the enforcement of the legislation.

The Group also noted there were further instances of confusion of which products were Irish and that this is to a large extent reflected the complexity of secondary processing with commingling of product at home and abroad. The Review Group suggested that this situation could be improved by Food Business Operators ensuring that their labelling is as informative and accurate as possible.

As I have already indicated I will ensure that the various recommendations contained in the report insofar as the control agencies were concerned are pursued by the relevant authorities.

The EU Labelling Directive is at present under review and The Department of Health and Children will take account of the recommendation of the Review Group on Labelling in the context of the current review of the EU Food Labelling Directive.

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