Celebrity chef Corrigan blasts Bord Bia for 'low standards'
CELEBRITY chef Richard Corrigan yesterday called for Bord Bia to be abolished, claiming they are not doing a good job promoting Irish food to consumers.
Bord Bia responded angrily, saying that his claims were damaging to the Irish food industry and they were happy to stand over their performance supporting Irish food exports worth €8.2bn.
Mr Corrigan said that Bord Bia quality assurance schemes do not guarantee that the products sold are Irish, free of genetically modified material or in the best interests of Irish consumers and farmers.
Standards for these schemes were so low, they were like "a bunch of chefs sitting around a table saying let's give ourselves a Michelin star", he claimed. Furthermore, Mr Corrigan said, Irish poultry and pigs were being fed on huge quantities of imported genetically modified (GM) maize and soya.
"We are deeply in the s*** and somebody needs to wake up to this," he warned.
Bord Bia defended their record and said they had an effective formula that had the confidence of industry and farmers and their assurance schemes had high consumer recognition and had been benchmarked against the highest international standards.
"All products bearing the Bord Bia quality assurance mark are sourced completely from within the island of Ireland. This has continued to be the case over some 20 years," said chief executive Aidan Cotter. They had no comment on the GM issue.
- Aideen Sheehan Consumer Correspondent
