Contaminated Meat (Hansard, 26 January 1989)

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food which import agents were responsible for the import of meat of Irish origin which in September and October of 1988 were cancelled as unfit for human consumption by Carrick district council.

§ Mr. Donald Thompson
Information supplied to the Ministry by Carrick district council does not include the names of import agents.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will list the occasions during the current year when his Department issued warnings to port health authorities of the possible danger of contaminated meat supplies originating in the Republic of Ireland;
(2) if he will list the occasions during the current year when his Department issued guidelines on warnings relating to the import of contaminated meat supplies to (a) local authorities, (b) port health authorities, (c) the Institution of Environmental Health Authorities and (d) the Association of Sea and Air Port Health Authorities; and on how many occasions during each of the last three years such warnings were issued;
(3) whether any notification was given to port health authorities warning of the possibility of contaminated imports of beef supplies following the identification on such imports by Carrick district council;
(4) if he will list the dates during 1988 when his Department notified the Association of Sea and Air Port Health Authorities of the possible import of contaminated meat supplies from the Republic of Ireland, in the light of the condemnation of such supplies by Carrick district council.

§ Mr. Donald Thompson
On 21 December 1988 and 13 January 1989, the Ministry passed information received from Carrick district council to the Association of Port Health Authorities, requesting the association to advise port health authorities to pay special attention to consignments of meat from the Republic of Ireland. These were the only occassions during the past three years when such action has been necessary. The association and the Institution of Environmental Health Officers have their own very effective arrangements for disseminating information about any problems which are found by their members. These arrangements were also used to inform their members in the case of the unfit Irish meat found by Carrick district council.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on how many occasions during each of the last three years his Department has been notified by Carrick district council of the condemnation of(a) beef and (b) other meat imports originating in the Republic of Ireland.

§ Mr. Donald Thompson
My Department received two reports from Carrick district council in 1986 and two in 1988. All related to beef originating in the Republic of Ireland.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on how many occasions during the last three years his Department has been officially notified of contaminated meat originating from each of the EEC countries by environmental health departments in the United Kingdom.
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§ Mr. Donald Thompson
In the past three years my Department has received from environmental health officers 14 reports on contaminated fresh meat originating in the Republic of Ireland, two on meat from the Netherlands, one on meat from France and one on meat from Spain.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what was the total volume of meat condemned by the environmental health service in Carrick district council for each of the last three years;
(2) what volume of imported meat supplies was condemned as unfit for human consumption for each of the last four years, stating in all cases the country of origin.

§ Mr. Donald Thompson
No records are collected of the quantities of meat condemned by enforcement authorities in the exercise of their responsibilities for ensuring that meat intended for sale for human consumption is fit for that purpose.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will seek to impose a legal requirement upon local authorities to inspect all imported meat arriving in their area which has not been inspected by area health authorities at the port of arrival.

§ Mr. Donald Thompson
No.