Consumers ‘misled on beef origin’
IFA president John Dillon presented the findings of a DNA test report on the origin of beef sold in Ireland at the national ploughing championships in Ballinabrackey, Co Meath.
He said the results were alarming and pointed to a breakdown of proper traceability after animals leave the farm.
Consumers were being cheated and the image of Irish beef on the domestic market was being tarnished, he said.
Mr Dillon said the IFA had submitted a copy of the DNA test report to Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh for investigation.
The IFA said that between August 5 and September 4 last it bought 53 samples of Irish beef from various outlets.
It had submitted the samples to Identigen Laboratories, a Trinity College-based company, specialising in animal genetic identification for Zebu diagnostic DNA testing.
The IFA said the samples were purchased from 12 supermarkets, 16 hotels, four fast food outlets, eight butchers and 13 meat wholesalers located in counties Monaghan, Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kildare, Wicklow, Dublin and Laois.
The IFA said 15 samples were positive, indicating a non-European origin. The remaining 38 samples were negative.
Mr Dillon said it was extremely worrying that out of the 15 samples which tested positive, 12 were sold as ‘Irish’.
On labelling, the IFA said four samples which tested positive were incorrectly labelled as Irish and one other sample, which was also positive, was described on a menu as Irish.
The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) strongly criticised the IFA’s DNA test report and claimed the results were flawed.
It also called into question the methods of the investigation.
IHF chief executive John Power said he had spoken to all of the hotels in question and have been assured the beef they sell is Irish.
“I do not know how the IFA conducted their investigation but hoteliers were not informed this was taking place in their hotels and were not given a sample to have independently verified,” Mr Power said.
“It is unacceptable for an organisation to conduct such a clandestine investigation without involving the hotels in question.”
Mr Walsh said he had been concerned for some time about food labelling and had set up a widely representative group to examine the matter.
He said he had taken a number of actions on foot of the Food Labelling Group’s recommendations, published in December.
These included arranging for centralising control of food labelling in the Food Safety Authority and pursuing with the European Commission the question of extending the existing EU beef labelling regulations to the catering sector.
