THE EUROPEAN Commission says it stands over severe criticisms of the food safety controls for some Irish-produced shellfish by its Food and Veterinary Office.
In a report, the office says there are “numerous deficiencies all along the production chain” in control systems to check the safety of mussels, oysters, scallops and clams, all species of bivalve molluscs.
“As a consequence, it can be concluded that the system in place cannot offer all the necessary guarantees that live bivalve molluscs and fishery products derived from them placed on the market for human consumption comply with EU public health standards.”
The Irish authorities have strongly disagreed with many of the findings in the report, and claim that some of the claims it makes are incorrect. The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA)claims the commission understands the Irish position but that this is not reflected in the final report.
However, a commission spokeswoman said yesterday that any factual errors in the report had been corrected and clarifications indicated in footnotes in the final report.
Since the report was published, the Irish authorities have been in contact with the commission to outline progress made in addressing its recommendations, she said.
The report is based on the findings of an audit carried out last year by EU experts, who were accompanied by Irish officials.
The term bivalve mollusc includes blue mussels, pacific oysters, king scallops and razor clams, of which Ireland produced 38,000 tonnes in 2009. A further 7,000 tonnes of gastropods, mainly whelks and periwinkle, were also produced. Most product is exported, with France and The Netherlands the main destinations.
In a response, the SFPA says the language, terminology and expressions used in the executive summary of the report are inconsistent with the factual findings and scope of the audit.
“Comprehensive and well established systems and controls are in place and operated by the Irish authorities in Ireland. These provide high levels of public health protection, and extensive compliance with legal requirements.
“There was an acceptance by the commission that changes to the legislation were required, so the extrapolation from non-compliances with those standards to infer a conclusion of lack of assurance around public health is unfounded.”
The report called into question the compliance of Irish testing programmes with EU regulations and questioned why some forms of contaminant were not monitored.
It also said there was no evidence that the results of monitoring were communicated to harvesters so that they had taken further action, for example to inform customers buying their product.
Food business operators in processing factories were not informed of test results above EU limits and had no access to the information, according to the report. They were, therefore, unaware of a possible need for purification or heat treatment.
According to the report, it can’t be guaranteed that live bivalve molluscs placed on the market for direct human consumption do not exceed the limits for microbiological contamination in EU legislation.
