Officials seize mislabelled birds in shop raids

DOZENS of turkeys, geese and ducks, for sale on the lucrative Christmas market, were seized by Department of Agriculture officials from two Cork city premises after they were found to be incorrectly labelled.

A spokesman for the department said it had problems with the same retailer last year when he was found on several occasions to be operating outside legal labelling standards. A number of follow-up inspections were made during the year.

Two department inspectors arrived at the Organic Shop outlets at the English Market and Douglas on Wednesday and a number of customers were told they wouldn’t be able to pick up their Christmas birds as planned.

Four batches of goose, turkey and duck portions were seized during the Douglas swoop. Goods were found to be inaccurately labelled and also past their sell-by date.

At the English Market, two batches of poultry meat, made up of turkey and goose, were taken away due to breaches of labelling regulations.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said last night that some of the products were re-released on Thursday after they were re-labelled at the unit where they were raised and slaughtered. More of the product has been ordered to be rendered or destroyed as its origin could not be clarified. Correct labelling is vital for traceability which is a hallmark of Irish and European food safety regulations.

The inspections were carried out under the Poultrymeat Marketing Standards Regulations.

A spokesman for the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association (IOFGA) last night said the Organic Shop itself was not certified by any of the three organic accreditation associations. Such accreditation is not legally obligatory.

The shop’s owner held a farm/processing licence with IOFGA until several years ago when it was revoked by the organisation.

Owner Marc O’Mahony last night said that the seizures were part of a routine inspection and that it “was a small oversight”. He said that all the produce was free-range and from a free-range producer.

“There was no label on the box. We got the goods from a small free-range producer and often they aren’t aware of all the new regulations around labelling. Also, many consumers don’t realise how stringent the rules are in this area,” he said.