Being completely transparent to one’s customer ensures quality and food safety. The EU has introduced legislation that mandates indication of sheep meat origin or place of providence. The regulation requires food business operators, including processors, retailers and butcher shops, to ensure that country of origin label information is clearly displayed on pre-packed lamb products at the point of purchase. This enables consumers to trace back through the production chain to the farm of origin, granting full transparency to the consumer. Ireland has one of the most comprehensive lamb traceability system in Europe, regulated by the National Sheep Identification System (NSIS), monitored and controlled by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. This system ensures that all sheep presented for slaughter are tagged with documented movement certification and flock register records, maintained by both the processor and farmer. With full traceability guaranteed, European lamb from Ireland offers a level of food safety assurance that few can match.

When it comes to food, consumer’s health and safety, the EU makes no compromises. EU legislation on the traceability of sheep is based on the principle of individual animal identification with the overall objective being to ensure food safety.
Consumers around the world rightly demand the highest assurances from their food producers and Ireland has been to the fore in satisfying their desires.