IRISH FOOD SCARE SHOWS NEED FOR BETTER REGULATION AND LABELLING OF ANIMAL FEED PRODUCTS:
The Spokespersons of the European Green Party said today that the contaminated pork scare in Ireland is evidence of the urgent need for improvements to be made to the labelling and regulation of animal feed products such as those currently being proposed by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament.
EGP Co-Spokesperson Philippe Lamberts said: "While it seems that the Irish Government has acted quickly to defend food safety and protect and reassure consumers, it is crucial that no effort is spared in quickly identifying the underlying causes for the dioxin contamination of Irish pork. This is vital so that we can be sure that the lessons of previous contaminations have been learnt and that the EU food safety regulations are working effectively. We endorse calls from Trevor Sargent, Irish Minister of State for Food Policyand himself a Green, for the Commission to introduce a more effective EU-wide system of food labelling and traceability so that consumers all over the EU can be guaranteed reliable and easily understandable information about where the food they buy comes from, what it contains and how it was produced."
EGP Co-Spokesperson Ulrike Lunacek continued: "We are of course extremely concerned by reports that the contamination occurred after pigs had fed with animal feed which had been tainted with industrial oil .These reports must be investigated thoroughly and anyone found to be responsible for criminal negligence must be dealt with accordingly. This outbreak shows once again that there is an urgent need for clearer labelling of animal feed products and that the regulation of such products has to be tightened up. We wholeheartedly support the efforts of the Green MEP Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, who is making recommendations to the Commission which, if adopted, would greatly reduce the chances of such contamination outbreaks happening again. "
