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AN OIREACHTAS AGRICULTURE Committee may question ABP Food Group, the parent company of Silvercrest Foods, which is at the centre of the Tesco burgers horse meat scandal.
Speaking with RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning, the chairman of the committee, Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle, said the committee is to meet to discuss the issue tomorrow.
He said that there was a series of checks, validations and rechecks done before anything about the horse DNA found in the burgers was made public. Doyle said that the situation was complicated because there are a range of producers and production plants.
The sources had to be cross checked, and all of this took time. Doyle also noted that the batch of products that was contaminated with the horse DNA may well be completely gone from the production plant in Poland, so that when tests are carried out they come back negative.
Doyle said that Minister Coveney will talk them through the whole chain of events tomorrow. He also said that there is a role there for the FSAI and the EU’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers to further establish what it is in the system that went wrong to allow this product get into the food chain in the first place.
“This is an issue of clear and accurate labelling as opposed to a health threat,” he said. Doyle added that the Irish pig and poultry industries are already “at the pin of their collar”, so “the last thing they need was something like this to come out”.
Tesco has dropped Silvercrest as a supplier, saying “the breach of trust is simply too great”. The contract was believed to be worth around €15 million and is a significant financial blow to the company.
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FG get off your lazy ass and sort it out instead of hiding behind words
DNA was the test that found horse meat could have been donkey for all we know in beef burgers. Its much more than incorrectly labelling. As no one knows where the horse meat came from how can it be known it was suitable for human consumption.
There has been an attempt of cover up by the government but the blunder is just too great for their ass. One thing is sure….them shower of pigs have managed to get their own DNA story kept under the carpet due to hyper sensitivity of the subject. If we can remember the very first articles being published, horse AND pig DNA were found….so where has the pig DNA gone now???? Doubting if that’s a massive cover up involving the pigs in the government, the press in general, and the powerful producers and stakeholders!!!
I would therefore please to the Journal if they could be more investigative in the current subject and bring some lights on the matter instead of doing what the pigs in government are “directing” them to do. For me as well as for others of same religion as mine and also the Jewish community, we do not eat pigs. So I think we have a right to know what’s really going on here. Thanks @ the Journal.
And feck all of you red thinners. I don’t give a shite of what you think. I want an answer about this side of story.
Almost every morning I see a picture of a burger on TheJournal – you guys are making me SO HUNGRY!
Yes, it’s always!
and i’m very hungry too!
Why is the Journal deleting posts on this thread when certain names already in the public domain are mentioned. The dogs in the street know the companies involved and have mentioned them umpteen times yet delete posts by readers.
I posted a comment several times edited the comment each time yet the comment was deleted. What is the point of public discourse if public opinion is rendered pointless. My previous 3 comments were utterly bland like this one. What gives?
Is the Journal now under Ministry of Propanada control like practically all media in the state ? Or are they just being caredful for legal reasons ?
We know the names of the companies involved, yet cannot voice our opinion of said companies, even though I said nothing defamatory whatsoever, I would suspect that some are more litigious than others.
The food inspectors were on the ball here in spotting this.
Just goes to show what some companies will put into food to increase their profits.
Yes they were! But how is it they have not spotted the foreign beef being labelled/stamped as Irish AGAIN. Goodman needs to fully explain this one! AGAIN.
I bet the oireachtas commitee will make a horse of this.
Waste of time , it will be a non runner !
“Oireachtas committee may question ABP Food Group on horse meat” MAY question ABP???? Is it just me or should there be alarm bells going off all over the place in the highest echelons of the Irish government! This scandal has already cost the Irish companies involved €millions, it has cast doubt on the entire Irish beef industry which is worth €billions, now we have a company in Tyrone (ok not technically Irish but British) supplying halal pies with pork dna in them but it is being reported worldwide as ‘Irish or from Ireland’. First horse meat now pork meat where it should not be, the whole thing is starting to snowball, the reputation of Ireland’s meat and food producers is now under suspicion and these fools are deciding wether the “MAY” question the company that caused it. They should have everyone of the people involved from the top to the bottom of the supply chain in front of them explaining HOW this was allowed to happen, WHY products from Poland are being used in what is labeled IRISH beef, why pork or horse DNA is even present, what about the so called traceability of this meat, how can this still be trusted? The world is watching how the Irish deal with this and if someone at the top of the Irish govt. doesn’t pull their finger out and deal with this fast it is going to cost the Irish beef and other meat industries a lot more than it can afford. There should be no ‘May question these people’ it should be a priority that they do so immediately because the people who run these companies have questions to answer and the people who enforce the labelling of these products have questions to answer too.
How Latry Gooodman was allowed open any business ever again after the FF deal under Charlie H is incredible. I suppose Seanie Fitzpatrick will open another bank in a few years. It’s real Irish. Politicians have a lot to answer for over the years.
Seanie Fitz has to wait his being found not guilty before he implements his plans to establish the Irish Anglo Bank.
Well said fotocrat agree 100 percent
giddy up!! clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop :p
This horse meat problem involving the Silvercrest Meat company owned by the ABP Food Group reminds me of the meat tribunal back in 1991, oddly enough involving the same owner, wonder will there be another tribunal to get to the bottom of this outrageous wrong labelling of our meat products.
I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with eating horse meat, but we would all like to be able to decide if we want to buy and eat it.
Sorry initial post disappeared:(
Neigh bother..
Argh! Comment in the wrong spot. Made an ass of myself.
There is a piquant irony in using cattle to raise question about beef.
have your say