CONSUMERS are demanding assurances about the purity of the food they eat. I believe they are entitled to such assurances. Their minimum entitlement should be a guarantee of food safety, assuring them that the food which is consumed comes from a disease free environment and does contain harmful residues.

These assurances are now urgently demanded because of the recent BSE/CJD scare and the regular and substantial finds of "angel dust" used in animal production. This apprehension about food safety is especially true of the meat industry. I believe the time has come to certify our meat products because people are no longer satisfied with glib assurances about "prime" beef cuts.

I believe the Irish food industry has a well defined, comprehensive system of quality control, including hygiene, at production, processing and packaging level. However, consumers want further guarantees.

For meat, they want it labelled to certify its purity from the start of the production chain on the farm, right through the system, until it reaches the butcher's counter, the restaurant or the kitchen table. In other words, consumers want a guarantee of the traceability of the meat from the pasture to the palate.

Such a belt and braces food security system is already in place in France. It is known as the "label rouge" system. Under this system, when a customer visits the meat counter in a supermarket or butcher shop or, indeed, a restaurant, he or she has a choice of purchasing meat under the "label rouge" system or red label mark, which gives a guarantee to the customer of the safety of the product. It also gives an independent assurance that a specific system of production was adhered to from the birth of the animal right through to the abattoir.

This assurance would include the farm on which the animal was reared, the breed of the animal - whether Charolais, Aberdeen Angus or whatever breed - and the system of feeding used in production. The assurance would tell if the feeding system was grass based and if concentrated feeding was used, that the concentrate feed contained no recycled meat and bonemeal.

I believe this is the only way that customers will return with confidence to the meat counter. They will, I believe, be prepared to pay a premium for this food safety guarantee.

The "label rouge" system works on a voluntary contractual basis between representatives of the farmers, processors, distributors and consumers.

In order to be granted permission to use such a label, there would need to be an independent certifying organisation (i.e. Teagasc). I strongly believe that licences issued to organisations participating in the "label rouge" system should be the responsibility of a newly appointed Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, who would have consumers represented on a National Council for Safety Labels.

The following conditions should apply to "label rouge" meats.

POULTRY:

1 Farm of origin certified from birth

2 Stock chosen for the quality of its meat

3 Specific open air space for farm raised production

4 Specific guarantees about the constituents of the feed used

5 Strict hygiene rules for production and slaughtering techniques

6 Each bird to have an identity tag

RED MEAT:

1 Breed of cattle identified

2 The genetic origin of the animal to be known and guaranteed

3 The farm identified

4 The animal feed and diets of the animals strictly controlled

5 Minimum slaughter age certified

6 Conditions of transport and slaughter defined

7 The animal health status of the herd guaranteed

8 System of identification of each animal throughout its lifetime, right through to the point of sale.

I am convinced that not only can this system work but it is now essential that it be introduced. Consumers are rightly insisting on the wholesomeness and naturalness of the food which they consume. It is about time the meat industry graduated to a quality level attained by the dairy industry now for a number of years.

It should be a sine qua non that modern technology should provide an ante and post mortem analysis of all food that goes through our meat plants. I am confident that if this assurance is given then the consumption of red meat products will return to previous levels, to the benefit of both the farmers and consumers.