The need to guarantee food safety and quality, and to protect consumers, has moved rapidly up the EU agenda in response to a plethora of scandals in recent years. The emergence of mad cow disease (BSE) in Britain gave way to dioxin-infected food in Belgium and sewage-contaminated meat in France before Britain again hit the headlines by originating a foot-and-mouth epidemic in cattle and sheep. These food-related disasters, all of which were linked to factory-farming methods, generated crises in consumer confidence, a fall-off in meat consumption and serious disruption of the sectors concerned. The cost to the taxpayer has been enormous as market support mechanisms and eradication schemes were put in place. Huge numbers of cattle are still being slaughtered across Europe in a campaign designed to reassure consumers over BSE while preventing a collapse in beef prices.
In that context, the two-day, European/World Health Organisation Food Safety Conference, which ended in Dublin yesterday, was important. It was the first time that agencies from EU member States, and from applicant countries, had got together to discuss consumer needs in relation to food safety. And, following rejection of the Nice Treaty by the Irish electorate, it was important that applicant countries should be reassured about our goodwill and given practical advice on food-safety systems. As the first EU country to establish an independent food-safety control agency accountable to the Department of Health, Ireland is regarded as something of a model.
The two-day conference explored the work being done at national level by independent, science-based consumer-protection agencies and examined how these contributions will connect with food regulations being designed by Mr David Byrne, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. If food is to move freely from country to country within the EU, then uniform standards of policing, safety, and consumer protection must apply.
During the foot-and-mouth epidemic, consumers were alerted to the way animals were moved from State to State by food-multiples, factories, and large dealers, in order to give them a bogus provenance. That was quite apart from the widespread and fraudulent smuggling of animals. As a consequence, there have been demands for change. As Dr Patrick Wall, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority, put it: "In return for their recent efforts in support of the agri-food business, is it too much for consumers and the tourist industry to expect safe food of high quality with traceability and honest labelling in return?"
There are issues here of basic fraud prevention for the Government. And the Department of Agriculture must ensure, through the newly established Food Safety Liaison Unit, that what happens on the farm and in the food factory is both legal and safe. In that regard, some of the measures that were introduced to counteract foot-and-mouth disease - such as a 30-day restriction on animal movement - should be retained. An all-Ireland approach to animal and consumer health would be a real advance. Such a development would be in keeping with the broader EU measures that are emerging with the support and assistance of the Irish authorities.