A EUROPEAN Commission audit published this week, found shortcomings in Ireland’s horsemeat production and traceability systems, although robust steps and improvements have been made since the horsemeat scandal erupted in 2013.

Overall, the controls in place in Ireland are in line with EU rules.

Last summer, three auditors met officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as well as local and regional representatives involved in the control systems.

Ireland was the first of four EU countries to be audited, the others being Romania, Poland and Belgium.

The purpose of the audit, which was carried out from May 7th-16th 2019 by the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety in Ireland, was to evaluate the control systems in place governing the production of horsemeat in Ireland including traceability.

The audit found that the Irish authorities had introduced several important changes in the control system and updated legislation since the 2013 horsemeat scandal which was uncovered by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

These measures were taken to ensure only horses with the correct identification and clearance for slaughter entered the food chain.

Inspections

The auditors carried out inspections of two equine slaughter facilities, a cutting plant, two passport-issuing organisations (PIOs) as well as visiting a horse trainer yard and a racecourse.

Of 100 passports checked during the audit, very few had any recorded medical treatments, even when horses were over 10 years old. The audit team’s view was that the “near-absence of records appears very unrealistic”.

At the knackery visited, the audit team noted that many horses were not identified, passports were mostly absent. Consequently, the Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) database was not updated and dead animals were registered as “alive”.

Animals were also found at a slaughterhouse with more than one active microchip, demonstrating that the identification system was not as reliable as initially thought but also demonstrating good control procedures to pick this up.

The audit found that “accurate official controls” on horse identification are carried out at slaughterhouses to ensure “only properly identified horses are eligible for slaughter for human consumption”.

It further identified that the automatic exclusion from the food chain of horses that are registered late with PIOs, or for which duplicate/replacement passports were issued, “mitigates potential risks in the production of horse meat”.

Intensive phenylbutazone (bute) testing of equine carcasses is carried out by the DAFM and carcasses can be recalled or withdrawn depending on those results.

Equine nation

The report noted that Ireland is the third largest producers of sport horses in the world and exports 65% of live horses. More than 9,000 thoroughbred foals are born each year and exported to over 30 countries globally.

There are 23,500 registered equine premises in Ireland, the vast majority of these are farm holdings.

Ireland’s equine central database was described as “insufficiently up-to-date” due to a lack of notification by equine keepers of transfers of ownership, absence of records of horses leaving the territory, or deaths not notified. No checks are carried out by the PIOs to verify if the passports of dead animals are returned to the PIO and if this information is included in the database.

The consumption of horsemeat in Ireland was described as “marginal to nil” with production exported to France, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands and Sweden.