INDUSTRY BODIES:FARMING BODIES have moved to assure consumers that any beef over which there is "even the remotest doubt" will be removed from the food chain to prevent the public from being exposed to contaminants.
The Irish Cattle and Sheep farmers Association (ICSA) said consumers needed to know that over 99 per cent of Irish beef has not been affected by PCB dioxins.
ICSA president Malcolm Thompson said industry food safety systems were strong and that levels of the contaminants found in a small percentage of Irish beef carried no adverse health effects.
“The national animal identification system ensures that we have a very accurate picture of where each animal has been reared and what it has eaten and where they end up after slaughter,” he said.
ICSA beef chairman Seán Scully said the predominant diet of beef cattle was made up of grass, silage and other homegrown ingredients such as maize and barley, rather than contaminated animal feeds.
Macra na Feirme president Catherine Buckley said the positive test results for the dioxins were a blow to the €2.5 billion beef industry, but the fact that it poses no health threat was reassuring.
Ms Buckley said Irish farms had excellent food safety records, but that increased levels of bureaucracy were regulating people out of farming at a time when suppliers of animal feed were not meeting the required standards.
She called on the Government to enforce stringent rules on the producers of animal foodstuffs.
Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Jackie Cahill said a “note of hysteria” had been allowed to creep into the debate on contaminated meats.
Mr Cahill said it was absolutely critical that the Government and its agencies continued to rely on science and rational assessment of the risk and that consumers should ignore public comment by individuals who were neither qualified nor competent to make contributions.
Irish Farmers Association president Pádraig Walshe said the decision not to withdraw beef products was “very positive” for Ireland’s €2.5 billion beef sector and a major relief for the 100,000 producers involved.
His comments were echoed by Meat Industry Ireland director Cormac Healy, who said: “The industry’s priority now is to communicate this positive message to customers of Irish beef at home and internationally.”
