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This time, he became viral, with hundreds of retweets and comments. Then the journalist Margaret Donnelly took over the story on FarmIreland.ie, the Irish Independent agricultural website, and everyone talked about it.
It turned out that I was not the last person to realize that "Made in Wicklow" on the packaging has nothing to do with the origin of the ingredients but is justified under rules and regulations in force due to the fact that the meat has been consumed. a "transformation process" here in Ireland.
Consumers were shocked by what they saw as a betrayal of trust by one of Ireland's best-known brands, and farmers protested outside the Kerry Foods site in Wicklow.
Following my tweet, a person from Denny's public relations company contacted me to tell me that the initial information I had received was false and that the chicken in this case actually came from Holland.
The story was picked up on the radio and on television and I was interviewed in several different programs. One of them was the Joe Finnegan Show at Shannonside Northern Sound; Vincent Carton from Manor Farm Chickens was also invited.
The economy of the chicken
Subsequently, he suggested me to explain a little bit about the economics of the chicken industry so that I could understand what could have led Denny to write "Made in Co. Wicklow" on a pack of sliced molded chicken bads made from Dutch chicken. That's what he said:
"Chicken is a global commodity market, we need to take a look at current wholesale prices for chicken fillets, frozen Brazilian fillets cost € 2.50 / kg, Thai dishes cost € 4, fresh Dutch between € 3.80 and € 4.50 and Irish fees between € 6 and € 7.30 The smaller the nets, the more expensive they are.The pricing has very little to do with the cost of production – as the way whose birds are kept and what they are fed – and even more so with the organization of the company.
"The chicken has a shelf life of seven days.It is safe for 10 days if it is kept in optimal conditions, but because of what is called in the trade a" abuse of temperature ", when buyers buy it in the morning and leave it in the trunk of the car for the day, the expiry date is set to seven days instead of ten.
"Chicken farmers follow a 13-week program, it takes 13 weeks to buy the egg, to bring it to the hatchery, then to the farm and to raise it to the actual size Most poultry companies have a 3-4pc surplus At Manor Farm we can have six million birds at different stages at a time.
Keep moving
"The company's goal is to keep it moving, if you have a surplus, you have to transfer it for export and if you freeze it, the price drops immediately by 60 to 70% over the bird's price. Everywhere in Europe, chicken farmers are running a slight surplus all the time.
"In Eastern Europe, the demand for paws and wings being more important, prices are higher than in Ireland, where the demand concerns nets." A producer in Hungary or Romania for example, will remove the legs and wings and sell them in Eastern Europe and send the "bonnets" (the bads of the carcbad) in Holland, which is the depository of all the surpluses. , hats from different sources are mixed and fillets are sized by size.The Germany, the UK and Ireland are the main markets for fillets.
"By the time the nets arrive here, it could be six days.They are purged with gas with an inert gas, usually nitrogen or carbon dioxide, in order to extend their life by eliminating the need for fuel. Oxygen packaging.They are sold in boxes of two trays, with 25 fillets in a tray.A large number of them go to the butcher shop, where they are sold in bulk.In a butcher shop, any piece of chicken sold on the bone is Irish because it is too heavy to transport economically, but very often, the fillets come from one of these Dutch cutting companies.Under European legislation, it is packaged and labeled, it must respect the law and indicate its origin (see page 16), but chicken fillets sold in bulk do not need to show it.
"Currently, most of what is in Ireland is Dutch fillet, but the market is changing.Frozen chicken from Brazil is currently very cheap.The Irish Food Safety Authority (FSAI) has stated that Irish consumers worried about salmonella and that they wanted to know the source of raw chicken, but that once cooked chicken, they do not care. "
Given this idea, of someone who knows the chicken sector perfectly, where do you think the chicken in the chicken fillet rolls you pick up for lunch when you have a hangover or you allow your children to feast on Friday, come from?
Fewer than 200 pig farmers
But it's not just about chicken that there's confusion about where the food comes from.
Shane McAuliffe is a commercial pig farmer with four farms in Castleisland, Co Kerry. He currently has 2,000 breeding sows. I asked him about pork for sale in Irish supermarkets, butcher shops and in the catering sector.
"In 2008, during the swine dioxin crisis, all Irish pork was removed from the shelves and it became clear that some well-known Irish brands had not left the shelves. revealed that they were using Irish pork.Pork from other countries is cheaper because Ireland is an island and it is expensive to import feed.Last year was the worst year of pork production in Ireland due to excess supply in the world market € 1.40 per kilo for pork costing € 1.60 to produce There are fewer than 200 pig farmers in Ireland and is difficult for our voice to be heard.
"Today, in supermarkets, everything is about the Bord Bia logo.If the Quality Assured logo is on a pork product, the consumer knows that it is made with pork. consumers should know that their companies, including some major Irish brands, opt for the Bord Bia logo and opt for the latter, and sometimes, if a special offer is activated, the Bord Bia logo disappears from the pack of bacon that may have been the week before, which can be confusing for customers.
"The Truly Irish brand is another brand that places local pork producers on the label of products.A few years ago, all supermarkets started to put the face of farmers in their advertisements because they know that Irish is an important factor for buyers. "
As with Denny Chicken Slices, this packaging conformed to the current labeling rules. But consumers could have reasonably expected that the pork products for sale originated in Ireland, but no.
Danish ham
"Lack of transparency was a big problem in the hog industry," says McAuliffe, "but now, the DNA of every boar in the country is recorded in a database.
IFA inspectors can taste meat or pork anywhere and check whether they are Irish or not. The inspectors have severely criticized the butchers and have now put their affairs in order, even if the market was flooded with Danish hams at Christmas. "
John Hickey, CEO of the Association of Craft Butchers in Ireland, refutes this: "I had never heard of Danish ham before Christmas, very few of our members would be big enough to import directly." He says that the rules of labeling are simple.
"If the meat is not processed, its country of origin must be clearly stated to the customer.The conditions set out above do not apply to the processing.At the time of the audit of our members, we insist on full transparency and the FSAI inspectors have perfected their skills, so that the enforceability is now very strict.The butchers are the last honest brokers of the meat trade. "
Full Irish?
Butchers may have greater transparency, but McAuliffe said that, in terms of indicating the origin of pork products, the food service sector – hotels, cafés and restaurants – is still " rather bad ", so much so that the Full Irish Many Irish establishments, which buy packets of slices of rashers and sausages in bulk from caterers, should rightly call themselves Full Danish.
"It's a prudent buyer's issue," McAuliffe says. Imported bacon, sausages and ham are commonplace, but IFA inspectors plan to focus on the foodservice sector this year. "
Pallas is the largest supplier and distributor of wholesale food products in the restaurant sector in the country, but has refused, through its public relations representative, to appoint a spokesperson to interview for this article.
If Irish consumers do not have enough to worry about trying to figure out where their chicken and pork come from, the waters are messy when it comes to fishing. Nowadays, salmon is an ubiquitous and inexpensive food with beneficial properties for health. But all salmon bred in Ireland are now organic and are expensive and of high quality.
Salmon that you see in supermarkets, where you find a whole fish at a lower price than a bottle of wine, is imported, usually from Scotland, Norway or the Faroe Islands.
Controversial Salmon
Farmed salmon is a controversial product. Opponents of this industry blame the pollution and decline of the whale population in Antarctica for large quantities of small fish used to make salmon-based food pellets as the mainstay of whales' diets. Organic salmon, raised in open mesh pens off the west coast of Ireland, is reared at a density lower than that of conventional farmed salmon, but by similar methods.
Wholesaler Niall Sabongi of Sustainable Seafood Ireland warns that Irish organic salmon is so expensive that 90% of the fish offered in shops and restaurants is not Irish. For example, in my local supermarket, packets of Keohane salmon steaks from Bantry confirm that the fish contained inside comes from either Scotland, Norway, the Faroe Islands or the United States. ;Iceland; the last letter of the batch code confirming the precise origin.
Since all Irish salmon are now grown organically, smoked salmon for sale in stores and supermarkets will also be organic if it is Irish. If it is not stated that it is Irish, consumers should read the label carefully.
Well-known Irish smoked salmon brands, such as Union Hall, Cork, use fish from Scotland, even though the company's website says that: "By buying only the finest fish directly from the coast West of Ireland, fresh quality products are guaranteed. "
"Our website is not up to date because we were sourcing fish from Irish fish farms and now that they are all organic, we buy our conventional salmon in Scotland," said Sean Cahalane, Executive Director. Union Hall.
"We still smoke Irish organic salmon, but it can be difficult to obtain.There is a huge difference in price.In detail, Irish organic smoked salmon sells for between 50 and 60 euros per kg, while Scottish smoked salmon is sells between 35 and 40 euros per kilo, it is more expensive the smaller package.On our website, the conventional is 26 kg.
When asked why Union Hall's packaging was marked "West Cork's taste" on Scottish salmon, Sean replied, "This is a logo that has disappeared from the West Cork LEADER program. and we have kept it on all our products, I do not think customers are confused, they know that a high percentage of smoked salmon comes from Scotland. "
Fresh hake?
Nick Lynch of Nick's Fish in Ashbourne, County Meath, admits to being obsessed with labeling fish for sale in Ireland.
"If you see a pack of fish in your supermarket with a tricolor flag and a label stating that it is hake that was caught in the Southeast Atlantic, most people would imagine as somewhere off the Irish coast, near Wexford perhaps, while this fishing area begins in the Congo Delta and descends along the African coast up to Cape Town and Durban.
"It's a different kind of fish from Irish hake, and the one fished off the Namibian coast is much cheaper and does not taste the same because it feeds on fish." very greasy, similar to those of a pilchard.There is nothing wrong with the fish, it's perfectly good and edible, but the customers think they get fresh Irish hake while They are not. "
Nick Lynch is also concerned that consumers have the impression of thawing fish that they buy thinking it's fresh. "You must almost be in the industry to understand what you are looking for," he says.
Thawed in Ireland
"If you see" Irish product "and an Irish flag on a package, this gives your opinion.The EU factory number tells you where it was packed, but according to the legislation in force, "produce" may mean thawing, "legislation refers to processing", which makes a product originally sourced from Ireland. If the fish comes from southern Africa, it has been frozen and thawed.
"It's very difficult for the average consumer to know what he's buying," says Lynch. "Fishmongers are generally reliable and they have to tell if the fish has been thawed, but you will also find fishmongers claiming to sell organic salmon for € 2 more per kilo than conventional salmon – this is not the case. not possible at this price. "
Honey is another product on supermarket shelves that could forgive consumers for thinking that it is Irish when it is not. "We have a major problem here," said Eleanor Attridge, Bee Health Officer at the Irish Beekeepers Federation, "weather depends on time, honey is totally time-dependent, and most beekeepers are pbadionate about can not guarantee supplies in supermarkets, there is simply not enough Irish honey around, so most of what you see in stores is imported. "
As a consumer, I would have thought that Kilcree Gold's organic honey, for example, was an Irish honey, because of its name (which looks like Kilcrea in Cork) and its packaging livery. But a closer look at the ingredients shows that it's a mixture of European and non-European honey, and Eleanor Attridge tells me that Irish honey can not be certified organic anyway, because it is impossible to control where the bees are flying. can fly within three miles of the hive.
Price is a sure way to tell if your honey is Irish or not. Irish honey sells for between € 6 and € 10 per pot; imported honey for a lot cheaper.
Pat Cussen, Sales Manager at Healy & # 39; s Honey of the Cork brand, confirms that only a very small percentage of the company's business is selling Irish honey – this would not be obvious at first glance. packaging, which refers to the history of the Healy family beekeepers.
"We are proud to be an Irish company and we renamed our brand two years ago with Bord Bia's input and focus groups," Pat said of the packaging. . "Yes, we play on our Irish, we are properly licensed and regulated as a packer and our packaging complies with all the rules.
"Our Irish honey comes mainly from the east coast, beekeepers with whom we have relationships, we keep a small number of hives ourselves, but we do not manage them, we are no longer beekeepers. enough Irish honey to meet the demand.We would like a hundred times more and what is expensive.We import from Argentina and Brazil, where it is available all year round. "
Origin
Sometimes the word & # 39; provenance & # 39; is used by chefs and culinary writers (culprit!) who write about restaurants that have a strong philosophy of finding local ingredients, but it 's only really about knowing how to d & # 39; where does your food come from and how it was produced.
This is information that every Irish consumer should surely have a right to, so that he can make informed purchasing decisions and compare similar products.
Of course, buying Irish is not a priority for all consumers. Many are motivated simply by the price. But for those who are, they should be able to rely on supermarkets and Irish brands to allow them to easily understand where their food comes from. Meanwhile, savvy shoppers will bring their reading glbades when they go shopping and looking beyond flags and clovers.
Labeling: the rules
That's what the Irish Food Safety Authority told us about the rules and regulations for food labeling and some of the changes that will be implemented next year.
"Under EU legislation, country of origin labeling is mandatory for certain pre-packaged products, which are generally unprocessed raw products and include beef. pork, lamb / mutton, goat meat, poultry meat, fruits and vegetables, fish and olive oil. Once these products are processed, the "pork, lamb / mutton, goat meat, poultry meat, fruits and vegetables, fish and olive oil. Product-specific rules "do not apply and products fall under" general rules. "Under the general rules, the indication of origin is not mandatory, but in some cases case, depending on the presentation of the information on the label, the indication of the origin may be required.
"As a rule, for the labeling of the origin, the rules are determined by the format in which the food is presented to the consumer: is it meat or meat? a food whose meat is an ingredient In the case of rules relating to poultry meat, for example, if the product is a pre-packaged raw chicken bad, the specific rules in force for poultrymeat apply and the label must indicate where the bird was bred and felled.
"The food industry may indicate" the origin "followed by the name of a particular country instead of these two indications if the bird was born, was bred and slaughtered in a state Now, if the chicken bad is used as an ingredient in another product, it is no longer chicken bad, but a product containing chicken bad as an ingredient and whose origin is determined by the EU's customs rules As a processed product may contain a number of different ingredients, this regulation is determined as follows:
· Goods wholly obtained in one country or territory are considered as originating in that country or territory
· Goods which are produced in more than one country or territory shall be deemed to originate in the country or territory in which they have undergone their last substantial and economically justified processing or work in an undertaking equipped for that purpose, resulting in the manufacture of 39 a new product or representing a milestone in manufacturing
"In general, the" last substantial transformation "is determined in three ways:
· By a change of tariff
· By performing a manufacturing or processing operation listed in the Customs Rules as a process conferring on the goods the origin of the country in which those operations were carried out
· By a value-added rule
"Thus, a product could be determined under EU law as originating in a given country if it underwent a substantial transformation in that country.
"However, we recognize that most consumers who see the indicated origin on a product, particularly a container of meat, badume that the indication refers to the ingredient of the meat and not to the product itself.The EU has also recognized and introduced new rules that will apply from 1 April 2020. Under these rules, if a label indicates that the product comes from from a particular place or uses graphics implying that the product comes from a particular country, they will then have to indicate where the main ingredient comes from. So, in the case of a product containing chicken and labeled "made in Ireland", while the chicken was from a country other than Ireland, the food processing sector will:
(a) Indicate the country of origin or the place of provenance of the main ingredient in question; or
b) Indicate that the country of origin or the place of provenance of the main ingredient is different from that of the food. "
Bord Bia quality label
Bord Bia is the national agency that promotes sales of Irish food and horticulture. We asked Bord Bia to explain what his quality label means.
"The Bord Bia quality label is the symbol used to indicate certification under Bord Bia's quality badurance system.When you see the Bord Bia quality seal on a product, it means that it has been manufactured to the highest standards, which have been verified at every step.
"Secondly, the flag and the" Ireland Origin "mark on the mark verifies that the product was manufactured in Ireland.If you see this mark, it means that the food has been produced and processed into the Republic of Ireland. Ireland.
"In Bord Bia's quality badurance systems, all stages of the food chain, from production to final packaging, for sale to the final consumer, are badured of quality: the farm or livestock, meat or packing center and any secondary processing plant (smoking, curing, cooking, etc.) Independent auditors regularly monitor farms and processing plants for safekeeping. ensure compliance and, after certification, the quality label can then be used on a product Currently, more than 51,000 farmers and more than 92 processors and packers who are members of Bord Bia's quality badurance program.
"Products bearing the Bord Bia quality seal include pre-packaged meats such as beef, lamb, pork, bacon, cooked ham, sliced meat, turkey, chicken, duck, eggs, sausages and hamburgers.It is also used for eggs, fruits, vegetables and potatoes.The use of the Bia Edge quality label is not mandatory for members of the insurance system Bia's Quality (SAQ), but they may use the logos for promotional and marketing purposes in accordance with Bord Bia's terms and conditions. "
Irish guaranteed
⬤ Guaranteed Irish is an Irish non-profit organization representing national and international companies operating in Ireland.
Symbol The guaranteed Irish symbol is awarded to companies that create "quality" jobs, contribute to local communities and "hire to come from Ireland". To carry the symbol, the item must be produced in Ireland, with the main ingredients coming from Ireland.
⬤ The CEO, Brid O'Neill Connell, said that Guaranteed Irish was synonymous with integrity and trust. "The space reserved for brands is cluttered with symbols, but Guaranteed Irish is the only symbol with a complete evaluation chart. You must earn the value and the right to become a member."
She adds: "When it comes to food, each product must be the subject of a separate license application.
The only product for which Kerry Group currently has a license is its Dairygold broadcast. "
Independent Irish
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