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Organisations

Irish Food organisations:

Teagasc

• The agriculture and food development authority in Ireland. It offers training and advice to
people within the agriculture and food industry, eg. advice on animal breeding and
sustainable farming.
• The main provider of further education in agriculture, food, horticulture and forestry. It
works in conjunction with Institutes of Technology to run some of these courses.

Bord Bia

• Promotes the sale of Irish food, drinks and horticulture in Ireland and abroad.
• Offers marketing services to Irish food and drinks manufacturers, enabling them to make
consumers aware of their products worldwide.
• Issues the Board Bia Quality mark on meat, eggs and horticulture, which highlights that a
food is fully traceable and produced with the highest level of care.
• Runs the Origin Green initiative, enabling Irish food and drinks manufacturers to
demonstrate commitment to environmental sustainability in Ireland and abroad.

Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM)

• Responsible for developing the Irish marine, shing and aquaculture industries.
• Provides advice to shers on new shing and sh-farming opportunities.
• Works in conjunction with national sheries colleges to run courses that promote careers
in the Irish catching, sh-farming and seafood processing sectors.
• Develops a range of information materials on the health bene ts of sh, in order to raise
awareness and increase consumption amongst consumers.
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Enterprise Ireland

• Responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in the global market.
• Works in partnership with Irish entrepreneurs and small businesses to establish or
expand businesses through the provision of advice, mentoring and grants.

Department of Health

They are responsible for:

• Creating food safety policies
• Dealing with issues such as genetically modi ed food, food hygiene and contaminants in
foodstuffs to ensure a high standard of food hygiene and safety is maintained worldwide.
• Educating consumers on food safety guidelines to ensure that they can maintain high
hygiene standards at home.

HSE

The Environmental Health Of cers (EHOs) employed by the HSE:

• Implement a range of legislation in relation to food safety and hygiene.
• Carry out routine inspections of establishments where food is handled to ensure high
hygiene standards.
• Deal with complains about food businesses or products or a suspected case of food
poisoning.
• Respond to rapid food alerts, eg. mycotoxins in food.
• Issue improvement notices and closure orders to businesses that are not adhering to
food safety legislation.
• Provide education and advise businesses on how to ensure compliance with food safety
and hygiene laws.
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Food Safety Authority (FSAI)

The FSAI aims to ensure that food produces, distributed and marketed in Ireland meets
the highest standards of food safety and hygiene by:
• Enforcing food safety legislation through a number of of cial agencies including local
authorities, eg. the HSE and Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
• Providing advice to ministers, the food industry and consumers on food safety matters.
• Ensuring food companies are committed to the production safe food and comply with all
relevant food law.
• Coordinating rapid-alert systems to recall food that has the potential to harm consumers.
• Taking action against food establishments in breach of food safety legislation by issuing:
- improvement notices when the handling and preparation of food or condition of the
premises is likely to pose a threat to public health.
- closure orders when a food establishment is, or is likely to be, a serious and
immediate danger to public health.

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

1. Meat and meat products:

• Ensures the maintenance of abattoirs and meat processing factories throughout
Ireland.
• Routinely tests for diseases, eg. TB and BSE.
• Monitors the use of antibiotics in animal production.
• Ensures animals are not being given illegal substances, eg. growth hormones.
• Ensures the identi cation of livestock and the traceability of meat.

2. Milk and milk products:

• Ensures that all dairy farms that supply milk for public consumption are registered with
the Department.
• Tests cattle routinely for diseases, eg. TB and BSE.
• Tests milk routinely for bacterial contamination and residues of antibiotics.
• Ensures dairy farms observe strict codes of hygiene when transporting, processing and
storing milk.

3. Eggs
• Enforces EU regulations, eg. all food given to hens is heat treated to reduce bacterial
contamination.

4. Fruit and vegetables

• Monitors fruit, vegetables and cereal crops for pesticide and insecticide residue.
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 Love Irish Food

This was established to help Irish consumers make informed choices about buying Irish-
manufactured food and drink brands, and to safeguard the future of food and drink
manufacturing in Ireland. For a brand to carry the Love Irish Food logo, the producer must:
• Source their ingredients from Ireland where possible.
• Ingredients that are not grown in Ireland, eg. tea leaves and cocoa beans, can be
imported.
• Manufacture at least 80% of the brand in Ireland.

Safe Food

Aims to promote awareness and knowledge of food safety and nutrition issues by:
• Implementing public awareness and educational campaigns
• Creating food safety and hygiene resources for teachers.

Food safety:

International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)

• The ISO is an association that describes requirements necessary for businesses to

establish effective and ef cient quality management system.
• ISO 22000 speci es that the requirements for a food safety management system to
enable food companies to control food safety hazards and ensure the food they produce
is safe at the time of human consumption.
• The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) provides accredited ISO 22000
certi cation to food companies when their food safety management system is working
effectively.

Public analyst laboratories

They:
• Analyse food and water samples to detect for the presence of biological contaminants,
eg. salmonella, and chemical contaminants, eg. cadmium.
• This is often completed on food samples gathered by EHOs from various food
businesses. The general public can pay a fee to have food and water tested.
• Test foods to ensure compliance with food legislation and labelling, eg. testing to ensure
legal limits of colourings were used.
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Local authorities:

Veterinary of cers:
• Carry out inspections of domestic abattoirs to ensure high hygiene standards.
• Monitor practices in meat-processing plants for hygiene and safety.

Consumer studies:

Statutory agencies:
Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC)

• They enforce a wide range of consumer protection legislation and they investigate
breaches.
• They enforce Irish and European competition law in Ireland and they investigate
breaches.
• They inform consumers about their rights and personal nance through a consumer
helpline, public awareness campaigns and their website.
• They advise the government on how proposed legislation or regulations could affect
markets in terms of competition and/or consumer welfare.

Citizens Information Board

• Provides information and advice to consumers on a broad range of areas, including

consumer rights, social welfare payments, family law and housing.
• This information is is provided on its website, through its phone services, or in citizen
information centres across the country.
• The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) is supported and funded by the
Citizens Information Board.
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Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS)

• It is a free, con dential and independent service for people in debt or at risk of getting
into debt.
• It is funded by the Department of Social Protection and operates within the Citizens
Information Board.
• There are over 60 MABS of ces nationwide, staffed with trained advisers who:
- Provide a con dential money advice and budgeting service to clients who are in
debt or who are at risk of getting into debt.
- Facilitate clients to develop the knowledge and skills they need to avoid getting into
debt, and to deal effectively with debt situations that arise.
- Identify sources of credit that best meet the needs to clients to pay back debt and
facilitate clients to access these sources.

Voluntary agencies:
Consumer’s Association of Ireland

Their aim is to protect, promote and represent the interests of Irish consumers by:
• Publishing an online Consumer Choice magazine, which provides consumers with
impartial information about their consumer rights and how to get value for money when
buying goods and services.
• Representing consumers on various bodies and international organisations.
• Lobbying the government for improvements in consumer legislation.
• Carrying out research to produce reports with objective information for consumers on
products and services.

Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI)

• It aims to ensure all commercial advertisements are: legal, decent, honest and truthful,
and prepared with a sense of responsibility to the consumer, eg. does not contain
offensive content.
• It also investigates complaints made by the public regarding advertisements, and has the
authority to instruct the advertisement to be modi ed or removed.
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Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI)

It aims to transform Ireland into a society based on sustainable energy by:

• Promoting a move towards renewable energy resources
• Improving energy ef ciency in home, eg. by providing homeowners with grants under the
Better Energy Scheme
• Advising and providing the government with information about sustainable energy.
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