CONSUMER
Every time horse DNA is
found in beef burgers, the
Irish agri-food sector
takes a hit
Time to beef up labelling
Consumers are now
much more concerned
about the quality and
origin of their food,
writes Conor Pope
P
eople love horror stories, particularly if they come with extra Yuk
Factor. In February, a regular report from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) was published and among its nuggets were tales of
human teeth, nails and chicken heads being found in food sold in Irish restaurants
and takeaways. It stayed among the
most-read stories on The Irish Times website for days, with readers clearly mesmerised by the details.
But such food-related shock horrors are
rare and the incidents easy to isolate so
they do little to damage the reputation of
our food sector as a whole. It is a different
story when things happen higher up the
supply chain.
Frozenburgers
Every time horse DNA is found in beef burgers or dioxins in sausages or every time retailers are exposed for selling cheap, nameless white fish dressed up as cod, the Irish
agri-food sector takes a hit and consumer
confidence is damaged.
According to David Berry of Kandar
Worldpanel, which monitors the retail sector, sales of frozen burgers in Ireland fell by
42 per cent in the wake of the horse-meat
scandal last year with the impact extending
to other areas of the frozen-food sector,
such as pizzas, as well as chilled conveni-
10 |THE IRISH TIMES | March 26, 2014
ence foods. While the crisis had little or no
impact on the industry, particularly on
Irish beef exports, which bounced back
quickly , it did put the spotlight on big retailers and raised questions in consumers’
minds as to how it was possible to sell a kilo
of frozen beef burgers for ¤2 at a time
when fresh beef was selling at about ¤4 a
kilo.
These questions are legitimate as are
fears about the quality of the food we eat,
particularly in cash-strapped times. Research carried out by Bord Bia at the beginning of the year found more than one-fifth
of the population still struggles to put food
on the table and while this has dropped significantly from 30 per cent in 2013, food
costs remain a concern for almost 40 per
cent of consumers.
“The findings not only talk about how
consumers are thinking today, but also review what we have seen since 2008, and
start to think about how consumers and
Irish society has changed since the recession,” says Helen King, head of insight and
innovation at Bord Bia. “This study shows
how a new emerging landscape can offer
opportunities for Irish companies and
brands.”
Food scandals make things more uncomfortable but at least people can draw comfort from the fact that they are uncovered
which shows the systems put in place to deliver quality assurance are working and underpinning the integrity of Ireland’s food
produce. Ireland got some very negative
press in the immediate aftermath of that
story breaking but later the criticism
turned to praise for the detection systems
in place across our agri-food sector.That is
not to say there are not problems. As consumers, we are more divorced from the realities of production than any previous gen-
eration because of the length of the food
supply chain across the processed food sector and the number of countries involved in
getting some foods from farm to fork.
Laxlabelling
Lax labelling regulations have allowed
some producers label Thai chickens as
Irish by just adding a sprinkling of breadcrumbs or a dab of garlic butter to them
closer to home. And while there is no suggestion the food imported from many thousands of mile away is in any way harmful, it
is not what consumers want.
The main principle of the EU food labelling directive 2000/13 states that labelling
must not “be such as could mislead the purchaser to a material degree, particularly as
to the characteristics of the foodstuff and,
in particular as to its nature, identity, properties, composition, quantity, durability, origin or provenance, method of manufacture or production.” It is to be updated later this year with new rules which will aid
consumers’ understanding of where their
food comes from.
Changes will be welcomed by Ireland’s
shoppers. Since 2001, Bord Bia’s biennial
PERIscope study has been exploring consumer attitudes towards topics such as eating at home, cooking, local food, the environment, and health and wellbeing, in 10
markets – Irela