Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Abbey Court, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Ireland.
QJM. 2013 Jun;106(6):595-7. doi: 10.1093/qjmed/hct087. Epub 2013 Apr 25.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) oversees the implementation of food safety controls in Ireland which are set out in EU and Irish law. The FSAI, a science-based consumer protection organization, has nurtured a close relationship with the scientific community allowing it to utilize the best scientific advice available to underpin risk assessments. In early 2013, a 2-month long investigation in to the authenticity of beef products culminated in the publication of results that demonstrated the presence of horse meat in a frozen burger produced in Ireland. The events that followed revealed a pan-European food fraud which will likely result in significant changes in the way this small section of the meat industry will be regulated in the future in the EU. Although revelations of implicated products and food businesses have relented, the EU-wide investigation is continuing in an effort to determine how a food fraud of this scale could have occurred in such a highly regulated industry and who was involved. The FSAI initially received some criticism after publication of the results, but was also commended for its scientific approach as well as its openness and transparency. The end result of this incident is likely to be that the complexity of the food chain will be addressed again and DNA-based or similar methods will become a regular feature in verifying the authenticity of meat-based foods.
爱尔兰食品安全局（FSAI）负责监督爱尔兰实施欧盟和爱尔兰法律规定的食品安全控制措施。FSAI 是一个基于科学的消费者保护组织，与科学界建立了密切的关系，使其能够利用现有的最佳科学建议来支持风险评估。2013 年初，为期两个月的对牛肉产品真实性的调查最终公布了结果，结果表明在爱尔兰生产的冷冻汉堡中存在马肉。随后发生的事件揭示了一场泛欧食品欺诈，这很可能导致欧盟未来对肉类行业这一小部分的监管方式发生重大变化。尽管涉及的产品和食品企业的曝光有所缓和，但欧盟范围内的调查仍在继续，以确定如此规模的食品欺诈如何在如此高度监管的行业中发生，以及涉及哪些人。FSAI 在公布结果后最初受到了一些批评，但也因其科学方法以及其开放性和透明度而受到赞扬。这一事件的最终结果可能是再次解决食物链的复杂性问题，基于 DNA 的或类似的方法将成为验证肉类食品真实性的常规特征。
