Food products seized at airports

FOOD products from more than 70 non-EU countries, some of which have endemic foot-and-mouth disease, have been seized from passengers arriving at Dublin Airport recently.

An average of more than 2,000 kgs of illegal food products from outside the EU was seized by the Department of Agriculture each month between February and June this year.

Food products totalling 12,134 kgs or 12.1 tons were recovered by officials in 2,476 seizures in the period, during which they interviewed 158,507 passengers. The products included chicken, pork, salami, beef, and cheese.

It has also been confirmed that seven consignments of fish (38kg), eight consignments of dairy products (15kg), 11 consignments of meat (100 kg) and 22 tonnes of international swill have been intercepted at Cork Airport since May 11.

Against this background, Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh announced yesterday he had made an order imposing strict limits and other requirements in relation to food imports from EU and non-EU countries.

He said that since the foot-and- mouth crisis, he had raised the question of improving controls on imports from non-EU countries on a number of occasions at the Council of Agriculture Ministers.

The EU Commission had since tabled a proposal to ban most personal imports of animal-based products from such countries and it is expected this proposal will be passed in the autumn.

In the meantime he had signed an order which provides a statutory basis for improved controls at ports and airports in Ireland. The new order, which comes into immediate effect, provides for a prohibition on personal imports of animal-based products from non-EU countries with certain exemptions, a limit of 10 kgs on personal imports from other EU member states of meat, milk and milk-based products and tightened rules for commercial imports.

Minister Walsh said that while his department had been successful in detecting illegal imports, the enhanced measures required the full cooperation of members of the public, including those carrying food products for personal use and those importing products of animal origin commercially.

He said his department's experience over the past 18 months illustrated clearly that there was a very real risk from illegal imports from non-EU countries which needed to be addressed in the short term.

In this regard, a number of the additional controls on imports put in place in Ireland during the foot-and-mouth crisis have been retained at points of entry to the State as a precautionary measure.

“Last year’s foot-and-mouth crisis brought home the need to ensure that all imports of animal-based products come from legitimate sources. While the foot-and-mouth case in this country was not a direct result of the illegal importation of an animal-based product, the original case in Britain may well have been.”

The minister pointed out that an outbreak of Classical Swine Fever in autumn 2000 in England, which resulted in the slaughter and destruction of more than 50,000 pigs, is also believed to have been caused by the consumption by pigs of a discarded meat product.

“I have said on a number of occasions it is critically important that we learn from last year’s crisis. Measures have already been taken on a number of fronts, including the introduction of legislation providing enhanced powers for authorised officers from the department, for new penalties for breaches of animal health legislation and for the registration and regulation of dealers in farmed animals.

“In addition, with the introduction of individual identification for sheep and the recent awarding of a contract for the operation of the national pig movement database, we now have uniform and reliable means of identifying and tracing movements of all the main species of farm animals into, out of and within Ireland, whether for reasons of disease monitoring/control, customer assurance or other concerns,” he said.