Meat processing sector must raise standards

Farmers, consumers and of course animals are the losers in this latest outrageous horsemeat scandal that has engulfed the meat industry.

It will require strong and decisive leadership to fix it, and Ireland should be at the forefront of any change.

Over the past two years, I’ve become very familiar with the demands placed upon farmers here when raising and managing cattle. Strict controls over reporting of births and forensic attention to the paperwork needed to move cattle anywhere are now part and parcel of farming in Ireland.

Primary producers supported these strong controls as their contribution to making the agri-food industry in Ireland safe and globally competitive. They did so under the assumption that the processing end of the food chain matched that level of transparency too.

Consumers also engage with the industry thinking policymakers and politicians protect them from any threats to food quality. The encyclopaedic data on the back of most packaged goods is a code for tight controls and supervision structures that ensure what we eat is clear and defined.

The third leg of the industry is composed of the animals that participate in our consumption of food. These sentient beings also are deserving of respect in a supposed civilised world.

If we are undertaking to eat the produce of these beings, then we need to have grown up attitudes towards how those animals are treated and handled during life.

These three participants of the industry — farmers, animals and consumers — have been betrayed by the meat processing industry in this horsemeat affair. The evident widespread use of horsemeat in beef products across a number of EU states provides a window into a sector that is far more private that its scale should allow. Policymakers now need to blow the doors down in pursuit of the truth.

If I was part of the SWAT team sent out to pursue and eliminate the forces that have caused this disgraceful scandal here are my orders;

*Demand all meat processors with revenue (from all subsidiary and associate companies) above €1m have to publish annual balance sheet, profit and loss and cashflow statements that have the same detail as those required from stock market companies and farmer owned co-operatives;

*Overhaul labelling standards for meat to show that a 100% Irish beef (or pork, chicken etc) product is exactly that and nothing else. Jail terms and heavy fines for anyone caught offside;

*Impose movement and animal welfare standards across the horse sector that equate to those covering cattle.

*Extend the standards demanded by large retailers from their food suppliers to the catering and wholesale food markets.

Europe, and particularly Ireland, needs to adopt a zero tolerance attitude to compliance in food standards. Aside from the health aspects of such a policy, it is also a central plank in retaining the image of Irish food as being of the highest quality. The dairy industry has, for years, kept its nose clean. It is meat that seems to have recurring problems with its efficacy.

One bright spot is the Irish Food Standards Authority was the first to blow the whistle on the affair. That part of the quality control infrastructure, at least, is working well and woke the rest of Europe up to something that now seems to stretch as far as Romania.

Tackling this issue needs resolute leadership, changes the regulation of our meat industry, and investment in rebuilding an image that was not tarnished by farmers, consumers or animals, but by elements in the meat processing sector. We have to do better.