Farms face new food rules

FARMS will be included in new legislation for approval of food premises, expected to be in place for 2006.

“We are some 15 months away from these regulations coming into play”, said Department of Agriculture and Food principal officer Andy Irving in the Oireacthas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food, where he recently outlined the legislation proposals which will applying to all food business operators.

Primary food producers, such as farmers, will be brought under food legislation in a systematic way for the first time, when Ireland enacts the EU proposal for the organisation of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption.