Irish investigation into beef dressed as chicken

Henry Burns said IFA members in Kilkenny have discovered frozen legs of lamb with official New Zealand meat stamps relabelled with Eurospar labels stating that the product is Irish lamb. He said, “this re-labelling raises very serious questions, is totally contradictory and highly misleading.

Minister Coughlan must undertake a full investigation of the matter”.

Henry Burns said it is totally unacceptable to both producers and consumers that re-labelling of this type would be tolerated.

It is the responsibility of the Minister and the relevant authorities, including the Food Safety Authority to ensure that immediate action is taken to protect consumers and producers alike.

The National Sheep Chairman said IFA members in Co. Laois have also found a further series of mislabelling in the Eurospar store in Portlaoise. “In this case lamb was being sold in shelf-ready packs marked ‘Irish chicken’ and without the official EU oval health mark. In addition, beef was being sold in packs marked as ‘Irish chicken’, pork was being sold in packs marked ‘Irish lamb’ and chicken was being sold in packs marked ‘Irish lamb’”.

Henry Burns said it is appalling that IFA has discovered two clear cases of mislabelling in Eurospar stores at the same time.

This requires a full and thorough investigation by Minister Coughlan and the authorities.