This article is from page 51 of the 2007-03-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 51 JPG
IT EMERGED last week that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) does not have a database in- cluding all food outlets in the coun- try, making it near impossible for any policing of the beef labelling legislation to take place.
It has also now emerged that the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has signed off a further Statutory In- strument on beef labelling in the past three weeks, which should clarify any issues with the regulations.
The IFA President Padraig Walshe, met with the Chief Executive of the Food Safety Authority, John O’Brien,
in Dublin last week to express the “extreme dissatisfaction” that pro- ducers are feeling about the slow pace of implementation of country of origin beef labelling in restau- rants, pubs and catering outlets. ‘“Itis unacceptable that nine months after the legislation was introduced by the Government, no documenta- tion explaining the requirements and obligations under the law have been sent to the country’s 30,000 food outlets. Further delay in implement- ing this legislation cannot be toler- ated. The FSAI has assured the IFA that briefing material on the legisla- tion was now complete and would be sent to all establishments over the
next four weeks,” he said.
In addition to this, the FSAI said food outlets such as restaurants and hotels could expect to be inspected by Environmental Health Officers a number of times during the year and prosecutions will be taken if they are found not to be implementing the law on food labelling.
The FSAI also confirmed that they will be undertaking a comprehensive programme of advertising and infor- mation campaign for the public on country of origin beef labelling over the coming weeks.
Surveys conducted by the IFA last autumn indicated that up to two- thirds of restaurants, pubs and hotels
are not complying with country of origin beef labelling requirements.
The country of origin of beef reg- ulations state that a food business operator providing prepared beef to consumers shall not advertise the beef for sale or supply, present it for sale or supply, or sell or supply it un- less the country of or countries of origin of the beef is indicated at the point of advertisement, presenting, sale and supply in clear legible type on the advertisement, menu or other presentation used.
Concerns have been raised that beef from South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina is being sold as Irish beef.