Tracability matters, says ICSA

Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) beef chairman, Edmond Phelan, said that after the recently held Joint Oireachtas Committee meeting on the authenticity of burgers, the need for tracability was never as important.

“We still need the industry and the Minister to engage with the question - why are Irish companies importing meat to put in Irish burgers, and why does traceability only seem to apply to farmers?”, he added.

Speaking after the appearance of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD at the Joint Oireachtas Committee meeting on Agriculture, in which he outlined the investigations into the revelations that horse meat has been detected in burgers, Mr Phelan said that farmers needed more assurances about the situation. “The ICSA position is that it is unacceptable that farmers have been put through so much effort and scrutiny in order to guarantee traceability, while at the same time, there has been a complete failure to apply the same standards further down the line,” Mr Phelan concluded.