A Clare couple who were forced to close down their black pudding business over food safety regulations have criticised the "completely illogical" rules which the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) is applying to small producers.
Locally-based cheesemakers and other food-based cottage industries face being put out of business when the FSAI "gets into its stride" with EU-drafted regulations, according to Donal and Treasa de Barra, of Bonina Foods, Miltown Malbay.
The FSAI, which recently acknowledged that current EU regulations should not be akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, has denied that it has a policy of favouring multinational food production over small-scale suppliers. It has recently been working with the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, on identifying the barriers which are forcing more and more small players out of the food production business.
Treasa de Barra set up Bonina Foods on her husband's farm about 10 years ago and was producing about €20,000 worth of black pudding every year with the help of one full-time and one part-time worker. She won several Bridgestone food awards.
It was when she decided to expand that the problems arose. Before committing to more investment, she checked the situation with the FSAI. She was told that she would have to switch to use of dried blood if she was to stay in production. Bonina Foods' black pudding was made with fresh blood, which was an essential part of the recipe. The animal blood was obtained from a local abattoir and was approved by the health authorities.
The FSAI advised Ms de Barra that it could no longer approve fresh blood use as it was not covered for export - even though Bonina Foods was supplying to local wholesalers only. The FSAI also advised against a long-term investment when the premises was in the vicinity of a farmyard and close to a domestic dwelling.
After further probing by the de Barras, the FSAI outlined a series of 12 conditions attached to use of blood in the manufacture of black pudding. Their local abattoir would not have been able to meet the conditions without considerable investment. "Dried blood is used by most of our competitors, and we weren't prepared to compromise, as it would not have been the same product," Mr de Barra told The Irish Times. "We baked our black pudding for two and a half hours at 250 degrees during manufacture, and it was then cooked by the consumer after purchase."
Ironically, he discovered that the regulations did not apply to retail butchers, who had been granted an exemption. "If we had been selling our product directly to the public, like the butchers, it would have been a different set of rules altogether." The de Barras maintain that the standards applied to collection of blood for use in black pudding are much more stringent that those applied to the collection of milk for human consumption. They believe that the FSAI should be more active in challenging some of the hygiene directives introduced by the EU, which are "completely inappropriate for small food-producing cottage industries".
In its response to the couple, the FSAI has insisted that it has no policy to close small meat manufacturers and says that it has been working very actively to support such businesses. It says that it did raise the issue of small food manufacturers both in Ireland and at EU level and it would continue to advocate for the sector.