The horse meat crisis will “blacken the name” of Irish food production across the world if the Government does not act quickly, the Irish Food Writers’ Guild warned yesterday.
The group of food writers urged the Government to “act now to protect the hard-earned reputation of the majority of food companies, large and small”.
Its chairman Myles McWeeney said trust had become one of the most important ingredients in food production. “If you can’t have trust in what you are eating . . . really it’s a very serious situation and it’s going to blacken the name of Irish food production right across the world and that’s the last thing we want.”
Food writer Ross Golden Bannon said food producers should consider introducing a labelling initiative called “How Many Hands” which would list how many pairs of hands had worked on a product from when the food left the farm until it arrived on a plate.
“Obviously big businesses won’t want something like that . . . but I think it’s time we fought back over labelling.”
He was speaking at the Irish Food Writers’ Guild awards, which were announced at the Michelin-starred L’Ecrivain restaurant in Dublin yesterday.
The guild presented five awards for products “of exceptional quality” and also honoured the Co Clare-based Irish Seed Savers Association, for its work in preserving native varieties of fruit and vegetables.
The winners included Toons Bridge Dairy in Macroom, Co Cork, which produces buffalo mozzarella cheese. The milk comes from a herd of water buffalo being farmed by Johnny Lynch in Kilnamatyra in west Cork.
Olive and cheese importer Toby Simmonds said the idea to make cheese from water buffalo came over a pint on St Patrick’s Day 2009. Cheese maker Seán Ferry was enlisted and 85 Italian buffalo are now thriving in west Cork.
Mr Simmonds said the milk yield was two-thirds less than that from a cow but it produced the same amount of cheese because it was far thicker and richer in protein and butterfat.
Tasty Award Winners
Rod and Julie Calder-Potts, Highbank Orchards, Co Kilkenny, for Highbank Orchard Syrup
Sheridans Cheesemongers and Richard and Jane Graham-Leigh, Dunmanway, Co Cork, for Cookies of Character
Toby Simmonds, Toons Bridge Dairy, Macroom, Co Cork, for Toons Bridge Dairy Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese
Connemara Hill Lamb Ltd, Connemara, Co Galway, for Connemara Hill Lamb
Irish Seed Savers Association, for preserving native varieties of fruit and vegetables.
