Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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229. To ask the Minister for Health the degree to which continuous monitoring of food and food imports exists with a view to ensuring compliance with Irish and EU standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5173/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Since 1999, responsibility for the enforcement of food legislation is vested in the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). The Authority co-ordinates this work through service contracts it holds with a number of agencies, including Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Health Service Executive, Local Authorities and Sea Fisheries Protection Authority. The contracts specify the food sectors to be supervised, the types of controls to be provided, including inspections and laboratory analysis. The contracts are published on the FSAI’s website and their performance is subject to regular checks and audits.

The collective work of the FSAI and the relevant agencies is set down within a comprehensive multi-annual National Control Plan, which is submitted to the European Commission and against which the FSAI and the agencies are audited by the Commission. The control plan is updated on an annual basis. More than 1,000 persons (whole time equivalents) are involved in food controls across all of the organisations involved.

The system of official controls covers all foods produced or marketed in the State, including imports. Imports of food of animal origin are the subject of specific authorisations before they can be placed on the market in Ireland or the EU. Imports of foods of non- animal origin are subject to compliance with all relevant EU rules. These are subject to market checks during the course of routine inspections and/or are tested as part of the annual extensive microbiological and chemical monitoring programmes. The FSAI also receives regular information on foods which may pose a danger to health from the European Commission through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed. Certain of these foods are subject to prescribed conditions of entry and a small number are the subject of emergency prohibitions.

Controls are carried out on a risk basis and actions are taken routinely to close or suspend businesses or remove foods from the market which pose a danger to consumer health.