Irish consumers 'cheated' by beef labeling - Dillon

Irish consumers are being "cheated" and "misled" through the false labeling and substitution of Irish beef with South American produce, Irish Farmers' Association President Mr John Dillon said today.

Mr Dillon was commenting on research, carried out for the IFA, by Dublin-based DNA tracing company IdentiGen. The results were released at the National Ploughing Championships in Ballinabrackey, Co Meath, today.

IFA President Mr John Dillon, says Irish consumers are being "cheated" and "misled" through the false labeling of Irish beef.

Between August 5th and September 4th last, the IFA purchased 53 samples of beef from 12 supermarkets, 16 hotels, four fast foot outlets, eight butchers and 13 meat wholesalers. Fifteen of the samples were found to be non-European, and 12 of these had been sold as Irish beef.

The non-Irish samples were sold in Counties Monaghan, Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kildare, Wicklow, Dublin and Laois. The most likely source of the beef is Brazil, which exports some 5,000 tonnes of beef to Ireland per annum.

Fine Gael said the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, must immediately investigate the claims.

The party's spokesman on agriculture, Mr Billy Timmins, said: "Minister Walsh and his Department have been previously warned about this issue, and still have not acted to ensure that all beef available to the consumer — which is labelled and marketed as quality Irish beef — is 100 per cent bona fide, and is able to meet all the tests of accountability and traceability."

The operation of beef labelling in Ireland is a disastrous failure, the ICMSA said.

ICMSA President, Mr Pat O'Rourke, said that the reason is due to two factors; a patchwork of agencies involved in the area as well as ministerial indifference to the issue.

"Ireland's failure to implement EU legislation on beef labelling must be addressed by government. I believe that it is now appropriate to give the responsibility of implementing food labelling legislation to a single agency," he said.