MEP says lessons must be learned from dioxin episode
10 December 2008
Statement by TUV MEP Jim Allister
“Following the current dioxin contamination scare there are both key questions to be asked and lessons to be learned.
It is imperative that with total transparency the Northern Ireland authorities, particularly DARD, provides a complete chronology of events, including when knowledge first arose, what precise steps were taken, why confusion prevailed over Northern Ireland pork being actually affected and the resulting wholesale withdrawal of supermarket stocks – causing damage to the industry beyond what the actual facts warranted.
The Republic of Ireland must explain how they allowed this to happen. Following the extensive dioxin crisis in Belguim in 1999 the EU put in place testing and inspection requirements on every member state. So, here there is not just failure at the feedmill involved but a Dublin government failure in terms of the adequacy of their inspection and control regime. This is something which I have already raised yesterday with the EU Commission. If the resulting economic loss to our economy flowed directly from Dublin government neglect, then recompense must become an issue.
This experience gives fresh urgency to the need for effective food labelling. This is something which I was raising just last week in Brussels. It is the absence of proper labelling as to origin which left room for confusion as to whether withdrawn products might have included affected ROI produce. If clear labelling was required as to the country of origin of the main meat content, then we would have known precisely which produce to withdraw, instead of the scatter gun approach resulting from the absence of such labelling. Rather than waiting for the EU to get its act together on this matter, DARD should be acting now to introduce definitive and unambiguous labelling. There is no sensible argument against such.”
