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'Basically the 'use by' date on a gas flushed product ceases to be valid once the package is opened.
You cannot apply a 'Use by' date unless this has been 'validated' e.g. by microbiological testing which is not practical for a retail butcher.
The solution here is to require your supplier to provide a use by date for the product once it has been opened and to confirm in writing that this has been the result of an appropriate validation process.
This is enforced by Environmental Health Officers.'
However the problem is that certain wholesaler suppliers are pleading ignorance about the need to provide this information to their customers (our members), or seem not to appreciate the value of this information to retailers.
A number of poultry sales people in ACBI member shops are saying that they never heard of the option to produce independent sell by information.
The problem is that this is an industry (as opposed to a regulatory) requirement and DAFF does not have an enforcement role. There appears to be a particular problem in border areas where shops are supplied from N. Ireland where all knowledge of the obligation has been denied to a member in Donegal.
The reality is that, falling back on the 'Best Practise' advice in the FSAI FactSheet (Copies also available from ACBI) to cover where there is not an independently verified date means that most of the product is at or near its sell by date on the day it is delivered to the shop.
The Department has responded to us by saying that as far as it is aware the information has been communicated to the industry and that it would forward our message to the FSAI which is ultimately responsible.
Our problem is to persuade the wholesaler to produce 'valid information' beyond the default position in the Best Practise guideline. This would bring the retailer in to the 'If Yes' provision in the FSAI factsheet.
There is clearly a communications problem if the content of the regulations is not known to the wholesalers who will obviously not make any effort to comply if they are not aware of the need to, or desirability of doing so.
We have asked the Dept or FSAI to communicate this direct to the poultry wholesalers, north and South.
There seems to be a view that this would put Irish product at an advantage. It won't. If we want to do that it requires a different strategy. Imported fillets are approximately half the price of Irish. While we encourage all members to use Irish product where possible it is hard to ignore the facts of commercial life and competitive pressures in the market place
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