Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

97. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the remedies available to farmers who purchased feeding meals with less than the minimum protein content and value. [8325/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 on the placing on the market and use of feed requires that manufacturers of feed are required to ensure that feed is sound, genuine, unadulterated, fit for purpose and of merchantable quality. In addition, Article 11 of this Regulation provides that the labelling and presentation of feed shall not mislead the user as to, inter alia, its composition, properties, nature or method of manufacture. Furthermore, Annex IV lists permitted tolerances for the compositional labelling of feed materials or compound feed as referred to in Article11(5). Accordingly, feed manufacturers are required to set out clearly on a label the composition of the animal feed for sale, within the permitted tolerances. If it is the case that an end-user of animal feedingstuffs is of the view that the composition of a feed is at variance with its label details, they should raise this matter with the feed manufacturer in the first instance. If a satisfactory resolution is not reached, the end-user may have a sample of the feed in question independently analysed.

The end-user may report the issue to my Department, who will, if considered appropriate, follow up independently with the feed manufacturer. In the event that the animal feedingstuff is found to be in contravention of tolerances, my Department will carry out appropriate follow-up and enforcement as required with the feed manufacturer.