Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by McAdam Food Products Ltd

Thank you for your letter of 20 March, 2013. I am grateful for the invitation extended by the Committee. I note from your website that the Committee will hear evidence from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) on Wednesday 23 April. The FSAI is the compitent authority in relation to all matters arising in Ireland in respect of the contamination of beef products, having investigated these matters thoroughly in this jurisdiction to date together with inspectors of the Irish Department of Agriculture and An Garda Síochána.

I can confirm to you that McAdam Food Products unknowingly, unwittingly and unintentionally imported some beef products into Ireland which were subsequently found to have contained equine DNA. The recent report of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (March 2013: “Equine DNA & Mislabelling of Processed Beef Investigation”) stated “there is no evidence that this company (McAdam) knowingly traded processed meat product that was subsequently found to have tested positive for equine DNA.”

McAdam Foods is a small, reputable and well run business and is compliant with all required food industry standards and regulations. We do not store or process meat products and our orders of products are dispatched directly to our customers from source. In recent years, beef products formed a relatively small proportion of our business. Certified Irish produced pork would form the majority of product that we have traded in the past two years.

The sources of the beef products that we ordered, and some of which has been identified to have contained equine DNA, were two factories in Poland and a meat trading company in the UK, the names of which have been provided to the authorities in Ireland.

McAdam Food Products had no awareness or knowledge whatsoever of any possibility of there being equine content in meat products imported and supplied by McAdam to any other company. Any such products were bought and imported on the basis of their being ordered, paid for, documented, labelled and understood to be beef, and nothing else.

As you will be aware, from the revelations that arose initially in Ireland, the issue of contamination of beef products has expanded across Europe. The unwittng involvement of my small company in the entire matter is a microcosm of the wider issues now faced by the entire food industry.

On a personal basis, I was utterly shocked and horrified to discover that equine content had been identified in products which had been imported and supplied by us to our onward trade customers. While I was of course obliged to co-operate with the authorities in their investigations, I can tell you that I did so openly and willingly and in the full knowledge that I would be exonerated. I provided details of all orders, supplying companies and original documentation to inspectors of the Department of Agriculture and the FSAI and I have co-operated fully with their Investigations.

I have found the entire experience to be deeply traumatising and it has had a profound impact on me personally and on my family. At this stage I am attempting to re-establish my business and livelihood.

I do not believe that I could enlighten the Committee any further than the Department of Agriculture Report referred to above, or any further than the expert testimony that you will receive from the FSAI who have investigated matters in Ireland.

With the maximum courtesy intended to the Members of the Committee, I therefore wish to decline the Committee’s invitation most respectfully and thank you once again for your consideration in inviting me.

Martin McAdam

March 2013