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Some eight incidents of inaccurate automatic machine grading were found by the Department of Agriculture in meat factories in 2018.
This accounted for just 1.45% of machines seen by Department officials during 550 unannounced, on-the-spot inspections on classification and carcase presentation across 32 factories in 2018.
Some 628 unannounced inspections were carried out in 2017 and just 13 incidents of inaccurate grading machines were found.
Farmers are advised through their remittance dockets where manual grading is applied
The information came to light in response to a parliamentary question from independent TD for Galway/Roscommon Michael Fitzmaurice.
“The mechanical classification method must operate within legally defined tolerances at all times,” Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed said.
“When any mechanical system is found to be working outside of these tolerances, the meat plants concerned are instructed to revert to manual grading.
“Farmers are advised through their remittance dockets where manual grading is applied.”
The minister included in his reply that 85 carcases were inspected at each factory, which was more than double the legal minimum requirement of 40 carcases.
Carcase trim
Last year, there was uproar from the farming community when it was revealed that 19 fines had been issued to factories for excessive carcase trimming.
Kildare Chilling Company, Kepak and Emerald Isle Foods were all named after repeated calls for transparency from farm bodies, including an IFA protest at Agriculture House.
At the time, Kepak apologised and said that on average they had a 99.9% compliance rate.
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