Non-EU food imports not up to EU standards

Beef produced in South America and poultry and shrimp from Asia exported to Europe are not produced under the same stringent food safety regulations as similar products produced in the EU, it has emerged.

And while the European Commission is not forcing implementation of the same standards in these exporting countries, Health and Protection Commissioner, Mr David Byrne, is insisting that Eastern European countries applying for EU membership should meet its standards.

A recent Bord Bia survey showed that meat imports into the Republic were much higher than previously estimated - in 2001, we imported 14,000 tonnes of beef, mainly from Argentina and Brazil, and 42,000 tonnes of poultry meat.

According to food lawyer Mr Raymond O'Rourke, it is ironic that the strict "farm-to-fork" food safety regulations in place in the EU and which are being imposed on applicant countries, do not apply to certain countries exporting to the EU.

"Obviously one of the reasons why many of the Food and Veterinary Office \ reports are not followed up with sufficient vigour is that we're into the world of high politics where, at the first chance that Argentinian beef would be banned or not permitted, the EU would be facing the World Trade Organisation. It's time the Commissioner faced up to the situation and informed consumers that they are not getting a sufficiently safe product, in food safety terms, compared with the European product," he said.

The chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Dr Patrick Wall, said every EU member-state had a food safety authority and every applicant state was developing an authority to comply with EU standards. "All member-states depend on the FVO to ensure we don't give out import or export licences unless they are satisfied that the standards are equivalent."

In November 2000, the EU's Health and Consumer Protection Directorate's inspection team reported on residues in live animals and animal products in Argentina.

"The control system currently in place cannot provide the EU with sufficient guarantees that Argentinian food commodities of animal origin exported to the EU do not contain residues of HGPs [hormone growth promoters\] or of other harmful veterinary drugs.

"While procedures described in the legislation to control the manufacture and distribution of HGPs are satisfactory, these procedures are not followed in practice," according to the ream's report.

In January 2001, another EU mission went to Brazil to inspect controls on animal health and the certification of imports of fresh meat and offal to the EU.

It found that, while progress had been made on the control of foot-and-mouth disease, farm registration was incomplete and farmers were not obliged to keep a register to record detailed data of the livestock kept on the farm.

Recent spot checks on chicken and shrimp imported from Thailand have revealed traces of antibiotics in chicken, chloramphenicol in chicken and nitrofuran residues in shrimp.