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Agriculture: Breaches of Food Labelling 17th January 2013

17th January 2013 - Bernard Durkan TD

To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of breaches of food-labelling in respect of traceability and other standard that have been identified in each of the past four years to date; the action, if any, taken thereafter; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
 
Bernard J. Durkan.
 
 
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 6th November, 2012.
 
Ref No:   47937/12
 
 
REPLY
 
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine: (Simon Coveney)
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) under the aegis the Minister for Health has overall responsibility for the enforcement of food safety in Ireland. This includes the enforcement of food labelling regulations.   It carries out this remit through service contracts with my Department and other agencies including the Health Service Executive (HSE), Local Authorities, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) and National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI).
The FSAI has advised my Department that the number of inspections where non compliance with labelling legislation were found are as follows:
2008                 3,437 (13.19%)
2009                11,231 (16.33%)
2010                9,919 (14.04%)
2011                9,499 (15.98%)
The majority of these were minor and remedial action was taken. During that period there were eight prosecutions which included breaches in labelling legislation.