The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, under the aegis the Minister for Health has overall responsibility for the enforcement of food safety in Ireland. This includes the enforcement of food labelling regulations. It carries out this remit through service contracts with my Department and other agencies including the Health Service Executive, HSE, Local Authorities, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI.
The FSAI has advised my Department that the number of inspections where non compliance with labelling legislation were found are as follows:
2008
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3,437 (13.19%)
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2009
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11,231 (16.33%)
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2010
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9,919 (14.04%)
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2011
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9,499 (15.98%)
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The majority of these were minor and remedial action was taken. During that period there were eight prosecutions which included breaches in labelling legislation.