An investigation into how French potatoes were mislabelled by Keogh’s Farm to suggest they were grown in Ireland must be carried out as a matter of urgency, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
Last week it emerged that the north Dublin potato farmers had shipped consignments of baby potatoes to some retail outlets around the country with the Bord Bia Quality Assurance label, which includes the tricolour, on the packaging despite the fact that the potatoes had been sourced in France.
Accurate information on the provenance of the potatoes was also carried on the packaging.
Keogh’s Farm admitted that a mistake had been made and said an internal investigation was under way but stressed that it had not been its intention to mislead and added that the potatoes were only wrongly packaged for a period of less than a week earlier this month.
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However the IFA President Tim Cullinan described the mislabelling as “unacceptable” and said a “thorough investigation must take place now, and the findings must be made public”.
He said Irish potato farmers “go to great lengths to ensure that they meet exacting Quality Assurance standards so that their product is eligible for the QA mark. It is vitally important that consumers and farmers have confidence in Bord Bia’s systems”.
He pointed out that local potato farmers had been “seriously hit with a massive increase in the cost of production over the past 12 months. They badly need market returns from the Irish market to be maximised, but actions such as this do the exact opposite.”
The IFA has contacted the Department of Agriculture and requested that they investigate this incident and give a full explanation.
“Bord Bia get significant State funding from the Department of Agriculture, and it is important that the Department satisfy themselves that Bord Bia’s systems are robust across all sectors,” Mr Cullinan concluded.
Bord Bia said it had been made aware that potatoes of French origin were labelled with a Bord Bia Quality Mark ‘Origin Ireland’ logo of Friday January 13th.
In a statement it said that “only Quality Assured potatoes, grown and packed in the Republic of Ireland can carry the Bord Bia ‘Origin Ireland’ logo”.
It said it “takes matters relating to mislabelling extremely seriously. The member associated with this breech of Bord Bia’s log use policy was contacted immediately and the affected product was recalled that day. Bord Bia immediately initiated an investigation into how the error occurred and a site audit took place on Monday 16th. The findings of the audit will not be made public as the audit process is confidential.”
The statement said that under the Bord Bia Logo Use Policy, Bord Bia is “entitled to impose sanctions for misuse of the Bord Bia Quality Mark logo. Sanctions may include, but are not limited to, fines and suspension from the scheme and can be imposed even in the case of a genuine mislabelling error.”
A member of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine Senator Victor Boyhan said; he fully supported the IFA demand for an investigation into how the Bord Bia logo appeared on Keogh Farm’s French potatoes.
“Any action intentional or not that undermines the Agri-food industry must be thoroughly investigated and appropriate action taken,” he said. “I have today requested the Chairman of the Agricultural Committee Jackie Cahill to request Bord Bia to come before the committee to explain all the issues around this controversy and subject themselves to a Q&A Session on the matter.
In a statement Keoghs’ Farm said it had been made aware of the issue on January 13th and said mislabelled 400g Easy Cook Baby New Potatoes packs went into distribution to some Musgrave stores between January 3rd and January 9th this year.
“The contents of the bag were French baby potatoes and were labelled as such. However, the bag used carried a Bord Bia Quality logo, normally used for Easy Cook packs which contain Irish home-grown Keogh’s potatoes. The Bord Bia Quality logo is only ever used for potatoes grown in Ireland and should not have been used on French potatoes.”
A spokeswoman said that the ‘Jazzy’ variety, which are used for part of the year in Easy Cook packs, are sourced from France seasonally “to ensure consistency of supply to supplement Irish potato stocks. The packaging for the French variety has never previously carried the Bord Bia logo and clearly states the contents are sourced from France”.
She stressed that it was “not the intention of Keogh’s Farm to mislead consumers in any capacity and Bord Bia are fully up to speed of the situation. Keogh’s Farm as Irish potato growers take origin and provenance extremely seriously and they are reviewing all label approval procedures to ensure this issue does not occur again.”
