The European Union has identified loopholes in the animal feed industry controls as the primary cause of most of the food scares in the EU, the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, said yesterday.
On a visit to Dublin, the Irish Commissioner said he and his staff were very concerned about this and were moving quickly to ensure that controls on feedstuffs were as strict as possible.
"In the cases of BSE, the Belgian dioxin scare and the recent problems in France, animal feeding stuffs were the cause," he said. "We are working on tightening the legislation covering this area now we have identified the loopholes."
He said the Commission was refining the rapid alert system under which health problems in member-states would immediately be notified to the EU and other countries. The Commission was
bringing a case against Belgium for its failure to inform the EU immediately of the dioxin problem. It had been identified there in January but had not been notified to the EU until June.
The Commissioner also expressed concern at overuse of antibiotics, especially in animals, because when humans ate meat with residues of antibiotics it damaged their resistance to diseases. "We have banned four of these antibiotics and we are looking at a fifth one."
Mr Byrne said that European scientists were satisfied with progress in eliminating bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Ireland, which he said had an image of producing good clean food.
He said Irish farmers had a commitment to producing clean, healthy food and the Food Safety Board in Ireland was of the highest possible standard.
The Commissioner met the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, and the Irish Farmers' Association leadership, and he visited the EU Health and Consumer Protection office in Clonskeagh.
The IFA leadership told Mr Byrne it was fully prepared to play its role in ensuring the highest standards of food safety.
However, Mr Tom Parlon, the IFA president, said the EU must guarantee farmers and consumers that the highly regulated approach to food production in Europe must not be undermined by imports following the forthcoming World Trade Organisation talks.