Bord Bia yesterday confirmed that one of the largest players in the domestic Irish ham sector, Carroll Cuisine of Tullamore, is not currently a member of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance scheme (BBQAS).

Bord Bia refused to comment on the reasons behind the change in status for Carroll Cuisine.

When contacted, John Comerford, managing director at the Tullamore-based firm, confirmed that the company is ‘temporarily not a member’ of the scheme. He explained that ‘a technical issue arose when some pigmeat from Rosderra which was Bord Bia approved product was smoked in a plant which is not a member of BBQAS’.

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“We are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, buyers of Irish pigmeat and hope to be back using the BBQAS logo in January or February,” he said.

“As soon as the issue arose, we replaced all our packaging for Irish products with a clear Irish logo.

“Any product that carries that logo, we stand over as 100% Irish,” he said.

Carroll Cuisine is owned by publicly quoted Aryzta.