Department of Agriculture inspectors forced the suspension of some operations at a Dawn Meats plant last year after they discovered inaccurate labels on beef which had been processed at the factory.

The Department of Agriculture does not normally comment on individual cases, but confirmed that its officials found inaccurate information on beef labels in a particular meat plant in an investigation in early 2006.

"Relabelling, repackaging and rewrapping activities in the plant were suspended until appropriate remedial measures were put in place...." according to the department.

It is understood that the plant in question was the Dawn Meats Grannagh facility, in Co Waterford, which is also the group's headquarters.

The department's investigation took place at the same time as an inquiry was under way by Italian police into the Irish group's local subsidiary, Dawn Italia.

But in a statement last night Dawn said that there was no connection between the two inquiries.

Irish and EU food safety regulations demand that beef is accurately labelled, giving information such as dates of slaughter and packaging and country of origin.

The system is designed to ensure that beef products can be traced to their source and it was put in place as a result of concerns which emerged during the BSE (mad cow disease) scare a decade ago.

Dawn Italia says that the Italian investigation unearthed nothing wrong in its operations.

However, Dawn Italia did confirm that the Italian Guardia di Finanza - financial police - carried out an investigation into its labelling between late 2005 and Easter 2006, but did not charge either the company or any of its personnel, and the matter was closed.

In a statement, Dawn Italia said that the inquiry arose from malicious statements made by an employee which the company had dismissed for good reason.

"Full traceability is a key requirement of meat companies in Europe since the BSE problems of the nineties," it said.

"The finanza tested the traceability systems of Dawn Italia from every conceivable point of view and established that they were correct, proper, complete and intact."

Its statement added that the firm handled only Irish meat.