The responsibility for maintaining "traceability" records rests with food business operators in Ireland, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Minister Martin Heydon also said that these records "must be made available on demand to authorised officers" who are in charge of verifying compliance.

The minister outlined the rules on "traceability" after a question was raised by Independent Ireland TD, Michael Fitzmaurice, on the issue.

The Roscommon-Galway TD asked Minister Heydon "if there is a publicly accessible system of traceability to track imported products of animal origin for human consumption from farm to fork?" currently available in Ireland.

Deputy Fitzmaurice raised the question against the backdrop of a heightened debate around imports into Ireland.

Last week the Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food, which the Roscommon-Galway TD is a member of, discussed the "importation of Brazilian beef into Ireland".

The committee heard from Larry Murrin who is the chair of Bord Bia.

Murrin has been at the centre of a storm in recent weeks over whether his role as chair of Bord Bia is, as some have claimed, "incompatible" with his role as CEO of Dawn Farm Foods.

The Irish company has confirmed that the business sources some beef from Brazil. According to Dawn Farm Foods, Brazilian beef accounted for 1% of its beef supply in 2025.

The country's largest farm organisations, as well as the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, have said they believe Larry Murrin's role as chair of Bord Bia is "incompatible" with his role with Dawn Farms.

This has led to several farming groups protesting outside government buildings last week, and a sit-in protest by the Irish Farmers' Association at Bord Bia headquarters in Dublin, which is still ongoing.

Imports

Minister Heydon told Deputy Fitzmaurice that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland is the "central competent authority maintaining responsibility for the food chain through service contracts" with a number of government agencies and departments.

“Recording of consignments of meat imports into Ireland is maintained on the EU TRACEs database and is supervised in Ireland by my department," he added.

The minister went on to outline food businesses’ responsibility on this matter.

He said: “Traceability in the food chain is provided for under Article 18 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 which requires that all food and feed businesses in the EU implement a traceability system based on the food business operator’s responsibility to maintain records of ‘one step forward and one step back’ which ensures that they can identify immediate suppliers and customers.

Minister Heydon also clarified that food businesses are responsible for traceability records.

He said: “The primary responsibility of maintaining records supporting traceability rests with the food business operator and these records must be made available on demand to authorised officers of the competent authorities who verify compliance.

“Labelling of meat products, as required by EU Regulation 2011/1169, EU Regulation 1760/2000 (beef traceability) and EU Regulation 1337/2013 (origin of pigs, sheep, goats and poultry) also plays a central role in meat traceability."