Agri Food 2010 Committee

Main Recommendations

15. Meeting Consumer Requirements

Our competitiveness ultimately depends on our capacity to meet the needs and requirements of consumers, which are becoming more complex.

15.1: Ensuring Food Safety

• Ireland should be to the forefront of food safety and consumer protection, and should seek to be a model for other Member States.
• Farmers, processors, retailers and caterers must accept a shared responsibility to produce safe food.
• The promotional work of Bord Bia, the Irish Dairy Board and top companies in marketing Ireland as the ‘Food Island of Europe’ needs to be underpinned by robust food safety and quality initiatives.
• There is a need for greater coherence and clarity in voluntary quality assurance schemes, which should include a strong food safety component.
• Clear, honest labelling must be the norm in order to inform consumer purchasing decisions.
• Transparency in the assessment, management and communication of risk is imperative.
• Ireland should fully support efforts to ensure that the animal feed industry throughout the EU complies with the highest standards of quality and safety.
• The Committee welcomes the improved co-ordination of food safety activities that will result from the establishment of the FSAI and the FSPB.
• The FSAI and FSPB should develop a National Food Safety Plan, setting out clearly the responsibilities and functions of all agencies involved in food safety and the contingency plans for dealing with food safety emergencies.
• Urgent attention is needed to develop an adequate and co-ordinated laboratory service to support food safety activities.
• Comprehensive surveillance data on appropriate food safety indicators should be collected and published routinely by the FSAI.
• Appropriate education and training schemes for workers at all stages of the food chain should be developed.

15.2: Assuring Food Quality

• Preserving Ireland’s reputation as a quality food producer is essential for the future of the agri-food sector.
• The decline in cattle standards has led to some confusion in the media, where it has sometimes been incorrectly interpreted as a decline in beef eating quality, and this has been potentially damaging to our international marketing efforts.
• There would be considerable merit in continuing and extending the current research by Bord Bia on customer perceptions of the eating and other qualities of Irish beef on European markets.
• The results of the Bord Bia market research and of Teagasc research on the impact of breeding and feeding practices on eating quality should be widely disseminated, particularly to beef farmers and processors.
• The Committee supports the various initiatives being taken to address the issue of cattle standards, but believes that particular attention must be devoted to part-time beef producers, who increasingly dominate beef farming and who derive only a small proportion of their income from the sale of animals.
• The following issues should be pursued in order to improve the standard of cattle:
• build a production quality incentive into direct payments where possible;
• consider how the use of fertility synchronisation products can be encouraged and facilitated, particularly by lowering their cost, while maintaining high standards of control and food safety;
• launch a co-ordinated education programme.
• The quality differential paid by the milk processing industry is a key factor in maintaining the high standards of Irish milk.
• The Committee agrees with the conclusions of the Sheepmeat Forum. In particular there is a need to ensure a better match to consumer specifications by addressing issues of quality, timing and selection. It is important that sufficient research, advisory and other support is made available to bring about the necessary changes in production patterns.

15.3: Achieving the Highest Standards of Animal Health

• The efforts to control and eradicate BSE, TB, Brucellosis and other significant animal diseases should continue. Clearly defined targets should be set and monitored by the Animal Health Forum, and the results published.
• Research being undertaken, in co-operation with the UK authorities, on bovine and wildlife vaccines for TB should be intensified, and substantial resources should be provided for this work.
• Programmes to control zoonotic agents in all food animals should be enhanced in order to protect public health and consumer confidence.
• Other animal diseases of importance should be the subject of appropriate measures for their control and/or eradication. In particular programmes to eradicate Aujeszky’s disease in pigs and scrapie in sheep should be put in place without delay.
• Effective identification systems for tracing all food animals should be put in place and maintained.
• There is a need for ongoing research in the area of rapid tests for animal diseases. This should facilitate the earliest possible detection of outbreaks of diseases.
• There is a need for much improved feedback to the farmer on the disease status of slaughtered animals.
• The structures and resources necessary to pursue disease control and eradication should be regularly reviewed to ensure maximum efficiency.

15.4: Achieving the highest standards of Animal Welfare

• Current standards of animal welfare in this country are generally high, and will improve further with the elimination of sow tethering and battery cages.
• The Committee recommends the establishment of an advisory forum which would bring a greater focus to the issue of the welfare of farm animals.

15.5: Developing Organic Production

• The growth in organic markets in Europe presents a real, if limited, commercial opportunity for Irish agriculture. To take full advantage of this opportunity will require that we develop a critical mass in production, marketing and distribution and a strong emphasis on appropriate training.
• The Government and food industry should adopt ambitious targets for organic production and exports and draw up a coherent strategy for the development of the sector.
• An Organic Development Committee should be established for this purpose.

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