The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has published the list of meat factories which were guilty of excessive carcass trimming to date this year, naming a single factory – Kavanagh Meats of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.
The meat plant in question was found to have excessively trimmed three carcasses, which were deemed to be non-compliant, according to the authority.
This is down significantly on the three factories named on the same list for last year.
In a statement on the department’s website, it was noted:
To date in 2019, officers from the Carcass Classification Division conducted over 580 inspections across 32 factories and over 50,000 carcasses were inspected.
“During these inspections, officers also monitored compliance with the EU reference carcass presentation specification.
“To date in 2019, there has been non-compliance found with the carcass trim specification in relation to three carcasses in a single plant,” the authority noted.
Any compensation payments made to a farmer supplier, including in relation to issues such as this, are a matter between the farmer/supplier and the processor/plant.
By comparison, in 2018, there were 19 instances of excessive carcass trimming: There were 11 from Kepak Clare; five from Emerald Isle Foods; and three carcasses from Kildare Chilling Company.
In 2017, there were 628 inspections and 56,330 carcasses inspected and in 2016 there were 616 inspections on 57,000 carcasses.
No fines were issued in 2017. A concerted campaign by the department, with the co-operation of Meat Industry Ireland (MII), took place in that year to raise awareness of the standard of presentation and the requirements for carcase dressing.
A total of 28 carcasses were considered non-compliant in 2016.