Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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1429. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of instances in which mechanical grading was suspended in meat plants in cases in which a machine is found to be working outside of tolerance and manual grading is instigated to date in 2019; when the report on the replacement of the outdated grading machines will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36273/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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To date in 2019, there have been 300 inspections conducted by DAFM officers in factories operating mechanical classification. During these inspections, there were approximately 30,000 carcasses checked for classification. During that period, mechanical classification machines were turned off on 6 occasions and factories instigated manual grading of carcasses.

The independent report on the modernisation trial of the mechanical classification system will be published in due course.