Northern Ireland-Meat company in court over meat labellng.

Omagh Meats, 52 Doogary Road, Omagh was convicted at Omagh Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 5 March 2009.

The company was convicted of one charge under the Beef Labelling (Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001, as amended.

The company pleaded guilty and was fined £1,000 plus £76 costs.

1. Omagh Meats was convicted of failing to comply with the requirements applicable under Title II of Regulation 1760/2000 and Commission Regulation 1825/2000, as enforced by Regulation 5 (1) of the Beef Labelling (Enforcement) Regulations (NI) 2001 as amended.

2. There are compulsory requirements in the legislation which relate to establishing a link between meat products and each particular animal (or group of animals), and a requirement to state where the animal was slaughtered and cut. On 01 January 2002 further requirements were introduced which specifically related to declaring where the animal was born and where fattening took place.

3. At a routine inspection of Omagh Meats on 30 and 31 August 2007, Inspectors from the Department’s Quality Assurance Branch identified 379 boxes of beef which had been incorrectly labelled.

4. These beef products were from a batch of directly imported Irish Cattle yet had been labelled as being born and reared in the UK.

5. Mislabelling of any beef product is a serious breach of the European requirements concerning the identification and traceability of the product entering the human food chain.

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