Seanad report: Seán Power, Minister of State for health promotion, said the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) had acted rapidly and responsibly after being informed of the Sudan Red 1 problem by the equivalent British body on February 15th.
Two days later all major retailers had been advised to ensure the removal from sale of affected products. No matter how well the situation had been dealt with, he believed a review was needed and he would ask the FSAI to undertake such a review.
The scale of product recall had been unprecedented and it was understandable that consumers were worried about health implications. The FSAI advice line had taken as many calls in one day - 650 - as it normally took in a month. Its website had received 22,000 hits in one day compared with the usual 400.
Mr Power said that of 166 products tested here last year, four had tested positive for Sudan 1 - three curry sauces and one sample of curry beans. The contaminated products had been removed from the market and destroyed.
Contributing to a debate on food safety, Noel Coonan (FG), said the Department of Agriculture and Food had never fully explained how contaminated feed had got past its inspection regime.
Feed samples taken at two import stores recently had been found to contain traces of bone. The material was sugar beet pulp imported from Germany via Rotterdam on two separate shipments last October. It was worrying that this contaminated feed had got as far as it did. We could not allow such lapses to recur, added Mr Coonan.
Martin Mansergh (FF) said it was a serious anomaly that while all kinds of standards and restrictions were imposed on Irish and EU food production, imports from places such as Brazil did not have to contain information on the place of origin.