From farm to fork... where is the traceability now?

WHILE it was important in recent days to minimise the risk of human exposure to dioxins in pigmeat, the Government’s decision to withdraw all pork products was very heavy handed, indicating no coherent strategy for traceability.

Successive agriculture ministers have boasted about the Government’s efforts to promote traceability with a key emphasis on tracking food “from farm to fork”.

This oft-quoted slogan looks patently ridiculous now as perfectly safe Irish pork everywhere is being destroyed just before Christmas. Ever since a similar dioxin scare in Belgium in 1999, the EU has urged member states to take stronger action with regard to traceability. The EU’s approach is to protect public health during food scares while also encouraging member states to target food recall in such a way that it ensures minimal disruption of trade. While there have been suggestions that those losing money from this food scare should not be compensated, I feel this stance is not sustainable.

Farmers, butchers and all others in the trade cannot be expected to lose out when they have sold perfectly good produce simply because standards have not been met elsewhere.

Therefore, I expect it will ultimately be the taxpayer who will, yet again, foot the bill for this food scare.

The Government should also spell out what exactly is meant by the term “from farm to fork” and what measures were taken to promote this.

The fact that the entire Irish pork trade is undermined due to something that occurred on a few farms raises serious questions about the effectiveness of Government traceability initiatives. For example, can the Minister for Health answer exactly whether there were any lessons learned regarding efficient traceabilty from the Sudan Red 1 dye food safety concern that occurred on a smaller scale in 2005?

With regard to the pork it sells, Superquinn states on its website: “The purchase records for all feeds are inspected and audited. There is full traceability to the mill where the ingredients used in the manufacture of the feeds are available for inspection”.

Has the Government taken any initiative in recent years to promote a similar traceability policy to that enforced by Superquinn?

If so, then the scale of this crisis should have been prevented.

John Kennedy

Knocknashee

Goatstown

Dublin 14