§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister of Agriculture. Fisheries and Food (1) what was the total tonnage of contaminated meat imported from EEC countries in 1975 and the first half of 1976;
(2) what safeguards exist to prevent contaminated meat from EEC countries from being sold to meat processing firms in the United Kingdom;
524W(3) what investigations are being put in hand to check against fraud by the sale of contaminated meat from traders in France and West Germany.
§ Mr. StrangOur precautions are designed to prevent the importation at such meat for human food. Meat imported for sale for human consumption must be certified by the authorities in the exporting country to be fit for that purpose and to have been prepared and despatched under hygienic conditions. Port health and local authorities execute and enforce the relevant legislation. They carry out checks, at their discretion. They reject and generally require the return to the exporting country of consignments found to be unsatisfactory.
Such incidents notified to my Department are reported to the competent authorities in the exporting country for full investigation of all aspects of each case including any suggestion of fraudulent certification.
I have no evidence of fraud in this country in connection with the trade.
The total amount of meat from EEC countries notified as rejected for public health reasons was 1,090 tons in 1975 and 625 tons in the first half of 1976.