Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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287. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which ongoing inspections of food and food products for export continues to ensure the highest possible standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47255/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Ensuring the highest possible standards is one of the main focuses of ongoing inspections of food and food products conducted by a range of State Bodies under service contract to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI.)

The FSAI is responsible for enforcing all food legislation, including export legislative requirements, in Ireland and carries out this enforcement function through Service Contracts with official agencies.

Official control inspections in food businesses are carried out by a range of State bodies (‘official agencies’), which include the HSE, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Local Authorities, Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority and National Standards Authority of Ireland; each official agency has responsibility for official controls in specific sectors of the food supply chain. These service contracts outline an agreed level and standard of food safety activity that the agencies perform as agents of the Authority.

The FSAI provides, through its oversight of activities, an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the Irish official control system. Official control tasks are generally conducted to verify that food business operators carry out their activities (e.g. production, distribution, retail, etc.) in compliance with the requirements of food law.