Over-regulation ‘suffocating’ food production sector
However more regulations are in the pipeline, according to experts.
Speaking in advance of a two-day international conference on food law that begins in Cork next week, Judy Howard of the city’s Market Lane restaurant said food production in Ireland, particularly for small artisan producers, was so over-regulated that the set-up costs of a new business were prohibitively high.
However, according to Dr Hugh McGlynn, head of the Biological Sciences Dept at Cork Institute of Technology which is organising the event, the sector is set to be tightened even further with strict new regulations on packaging, preservatives and food additives.
The Foodlink conference on food law, which runs at Oriel House Hotel in Ballincollig on Monday and Tuesday next will be addressed by a variety of Irish and international experts.
The conference will look at best food safety practice in the EU and particularly in Canada, which Dr McGlynn said was “probably the most strictly regulated country in the world as regards food and health.”
Representatives from the Canadian food sector will address the conference about their food legislation, which, said Dr McGlynn would be a significant “heads-up” for food producers here.
There was already a “mountain” of paperwork surrounding food safety here, he said, all of which was for the protection of the consumer — but more was on the way: new regulations concerning issues such as packaging and legislation governing food additives and preservatives would come into operation in Ireland within the next year or two, he warned.
The aim of the conference was to look at best practice in the EU and Canada, examine the current regulations and discuss evolving food legislation and the impact it would have both on countries and on small business, Dr McGlynn said.
“This conference is a way of informing and showing the small business community what’s there and what’s coming down the line. There may be some practices going on in Denmark and Canada which may well impact on Ireland in the foreseeable future. What we want to do is to help small businesses prepare for the inevitable changes in food law regulation. ”
However the Irish food production sector is already over regulated according to Judy Howard, who has worked in the restaurant sector for the past two decades: “I know of one artisan cheese producer who has had to fight a string of legal battles with the Department of Agriculture over the use of un-pasteurised milk — which is crucial to the type of cheese he produces — and which has been found to be completely safe anyway.”
Ms Howard said there was a demand from the public for restaurants to use produce from sources such as farmers’ markets she said but it wasn’t always possible: “In some cases food regulations prohibit restaurants like ourselves from using such and such a producer if they are not registered with the relevant authority. The spontaneity and inventiveness in Irish food production is in danger of being suffocated because of over-regulation.”
