The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has delivered letters to Bord Bia, the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture in a bid to have any supplies of Brazilian beef in cold stores recalled on public health grounds.
It follows an EU-wide ban on Brazilian beef and poultry from entering the bloc, which came into effect last week.
The European Commission said Brazil failed to provide sufficient guarantees that its exports meet EU standards aimed at preventing the misuse of antibiotics in livestock farming.
Members of the IFA’s National Council and the Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee handed in the letters today.
In the letter handed into the Department of Health, Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was requested to direct the Food Safety Authority of Ireland to instigate a recall of all Brazilian meat that was imported after the announcement in May, but ahead of the ban taking effect last week.
IFA President Francie Gorman said: “We are also asking the Health Minister to raise this with other EU Health Ministers as she holds the chair during Ireland’s term of the EU Presidency.”
In the letter addressed to the Chair of Bord Bia Larry Murrin, the IFA re-iterated its assertion that his position is “untenable as he has imported Brazilian beef and chicken”.
Mr Gorman said “he needs to clarify if his company Dawn Farm Foods continued to import Brazilian meat after the EU Commission flagged this public health ban in May.
“Now that the EU Commission has vindicated IFA’s position on Brazilian meat, we believe that his position is even more untenable.
“In the interests of Bord Bia, we are asking that he steps down as Chair of Bord Bia,” he said.
The final letter was delivered to Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon, which raised the recall and his support for the Chair of Bord Bia.