Pork meat traceability system ‘flawed’

THE traceability system for pork meat is flawed and exposed taxpayers to an excessive bill from last year’s dioxin crisis, an Oireachtas committee has said.

The Agriculture Committee has published its report on the contamination of pork products and criticised the inspection regime as well as budget proposals, which it said would compromise the effectiveness of the Food Safety Authority.

Committee chairman Johnny Brady TD said the system had failed consumers and farmers alike.

“The current traceability regime is not working. The contamination affected an estimated 10% of pork products, but yet a 100% recall of pork products was deemed necessary,” he said.

This was rejected by the Irish Association of Pig Meat Processors. It said the system matched up to best international practice and the problem was a lack of regulation in other sectors.

However, Fine Gael’s Michael Creed said taxpayers were liable for a €180 million compensation package which would not have been necessary if a forensic recall was made.

And the report said given the inability to trace product back to the farm of origin the Food Safety Authority of Ireland had no option but to order a full recall.

Mr Brady also criticised his own Government’s budget proposal to amalgamate the authority with the Medicines’ Board.

Committee member Sean Sherlock, of the Labour Party, said the fragmented inspection process had compromised the entire system.

The committee criticised the inspection procedures of Co Carlow, which had issued the waste licence to the Bunclody plant where the contamination was traced to.

“The remit of the FSAI should be extended to cover all the feed chain. It is unacceptable that the food recycling plant at the centre of the contamination was not inspected at all in 2008,” he said.

Carlow council’s director of services for environmental water services, John Cawley, rejected this.

“We would not agree with the assessment that we were in breach of our own environmental inspection plan.”

He said while the council had not inspected the site this did not breach its plan because it was a low-risk site and its regime was structured on a risk basis.

At the report’s launch committee members said taxpayers should be angriest at the Department of Agriculture for not having sufficient traceability measures.

Afterwards a statement from Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith said he had established an inter-agency review group to recommend improvements. He said the committee’s report would feed into this.