Responsibility for providing safe beef for consumers lies with the industry, not regulators, the chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has warned.
"The standards of some companies in the industry are in excess of the legal requirements - and this should be the benchmark for all other companies," Dr Patrick Wall told a meat research conference in Dublin yesterday. Companies must stand over the safety of their food products, and "the ones that don't will be left behind. There will be no way out for the beef industry if there is another scandal." Because some companies had such high safety standards, others could not complain that regulations were putting them out of business.
He was speaking after a quality assurance plan for the State's beef slaughter sector, which aims to increase consumer confidence in the beef industry, was announced at the conference by Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Mr Ned O'Keeffe. Its main objective is to reduce food safety hazards in slaughtering plants.
The plan, called "Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) for Irish Beef Slaughter", details critical safety practices from the time the animal reaches the meat factory or abattoir until the carcass leaves.
"Implementation of the new plan will shortly become a legal requirement for the beef sector," said author of the plan, Dr Declan Bolton of the Teagasc National Food Centre, which hosted the conference.