Posted by The halal meat industry in Ireland is acting like a law unto itself-Ken O’Flynn Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn has said information provided to him by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) regarding targeted audits and unannounced inspections that it conducted at halal meat food operators have revealed “a catalogue of collapses in safety and compliance controls that is extremely alarming.” The Cork North-Central TD said FSAI audits conducted in July 2019 and February 2020, covering 25 food businesses, in addition to Protected Disclosure initiated investigations in 2022 and 2024 are “remarkable for the consistency of the nature of the breaches that were discovered, including contraventions associated with meat traceability, labelling, incomplete intake records; significant discrepancies between the net quantities at intake of particular consignments of meat compared with the net quantities on hand and dispatched, and meat misleadingly described as ‘Halal’ on associated commercial documents. Commenting further on the matter, Deputy O’Flynn stated: “Anyone reading the information provide to me by the FSAI would be hard pressed to come to any conclusion other than the operators within the halal meat section appear to believe that regulations are only there to be ignored.” “These were not minor or inconsequential breaches. They were systemic failures of basic due diligence by at least four companies claiming to offer halal meat.” “In fact, the result of one investigation ended in the disposal of 12,000 kg of out of date and untraceable products of animal origin. These are disgusting and vile practices and they must be rooted out through a zero-tolerance approach.” “I commend the work conducted by the FSAI, but I am concerned that at no point did the authority assess the varying methods of slaughter that are considered to come under the classification of halal.” “I think I am not alone in finding the practice of having animals cut at the throat, severing the jugular veins, a ruthless and needlessly barbaric practice. However, my primary concern is for the safety and well-being of the Irish consumer who may be purchasing meat that is falsely or misleadingly labelled or actively dangerous to consume.” “I would also say, while the FSAI has found breaches have occurred regarding claims to certain meat being labelled halal when it was not-how do we know the opposite practice is also not happening. Have Irish customers appalled by halal practices inadvertently bought animal meat prepared using halal practices because they were misleadingly labelled as non-halal?” “It is time for Government to take a lead on this and put aside any concerns it may have about offending the sensibilities of a certain communities. This is first and foremost about public health issue and the public’s right to accurate information.” Concluding his comments, Deputy O’Flynn said, “Government can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to fraud of this scale.”
Who Watches the Watchers? 