FAQs

Bord Bia’s role is to market and promote Irish food, drink and horticulture to customers worldwide on the basis of sustainability, traceability and quality. 

The Bord Bia executive (i.e employees), carry out the day-to-day activities of Bord Bia, led by the Chief Executive and his senior management team. Each member of the senior management team leads their individual teams. It is through these teams that the activities of Bord Bia and planned and executed together with farmers, processors, the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, partner organisations and our markets. 

The Bord Bia board is responsible for examining, challenging, and giving advice on the work of Bord Bia. The chair and board members are not staff of Bord Bia and are not involved in day-to-day operations.  

All board members are appointed by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.  

The Chair is responsible for leadership of the Board and ensuring its effectiveness on all aspects of its role. 

The Chair is responsible for: 

• The effective management of the Board’s agenda and ensuring that adequate time is available for discussion of all agenda items.  

• Promotion of a culture of openness and debate by facilitating the effective contribution of key management and all board members.  

• Ensuring that the Board receive timely, accurate and clear information. 

• Advising the Minister where certain skills may be needed on the Board. 

• Providing a comprehensive annual report to the Minister in conjunction with the financial statements, including a report in relation to the system of internal control in the organisation.   

Quality Assured status is an essential basic requirement to meet the specifications of our best and highest paying customers, both in Ireland and in export markets. The Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) enables Bord Bia to gather information from over 58,000 farms, allowing Bord Bia to make verified marketing claims about the sustainability and animal welfare status of Irish beef and sheepmeat. The SBLAS audit information ensures that any marketing claims made by Bord Bia are backed-up with verified data, allowing us to meet the growing expectations of consumers. 

Over the past two decades, the Irish beef sector has made significant progress in securing access to over 100 of Europe’s top retail and foodservice customers, the vast majority of whom will only buy beef which is Quality Assured. Growth in shoppers’ awareness of Irish beef, and propensity to purchase Irish beef, are key measures of success across our target markets. 

There are many benefits of Quality Assurance beyond building and supporting reputation within international markets. Bord Bia audits, for example, have brought greater awareness of safety issues on many farms, providing fresh eyes on hazards potentially overlooked. Audits also help keep members better informed of their legal obligations and prepared for cross compliance and other inspections. 

 Quality Assurance enables us to make claims such as: 

• Irish Grass Fed beef and lamb 

• Pasture Raised Beef 

• From Certified Sustainability Scheme 

• Raised on Family Farms 

• Responsible Use of Antibiotics 

• Full Farm to Fork traceability 

• From Quality Assured Farms and Processing Systems 

All Bord Bia approved meat processing plants undergo two audits within an 18-month period (one announced, one unannounced spot audit). To verify conformance with strict criteria laid out in the relevant Bord Bia standard, a detailed check of records and documentation is carried out for all meat dispatched. In addition, where product is sold as Bord Bia Quality Assured, checks are completed against the Bord Bia logo use policy. 

The audit team will carry out traceability checks through random and targeted sampling of production records and associated documentation. Auditors can request access to records for any day’s production from as far back as initial certification, to ensure full traceability of Quality Assured meat dispatched from the plant. 

The processor sends a query to the Bord Bia database to determine the Bord Bia QA status of the animal. 

The system checks the status of each herd or flock the animal has been on for the past 70 days for cattle, and 42 days for sheep, and then provides a true or false response to whether the animal is both Irish born and Quality Assured. The Quality Mark is only carried on products from animals born, reared and processed in Ireland. 

Following slaughter, a barcoded label is fitted to each carcass which includes all the information about the animal including Quality Assurance status. 

Quality Assured (QA) carcasses are segregated from non-Quality Assured carcasses and assigned a separate batch code. 

All QA carcass numbers entering a meat line are allocated a special QA batch code. 

Non-QA beef does not carry the Bord Bia Quality Mark. 

The Bord Bia Origin Ireland Logo can only be used on meat products that comply with the following criteria: 

• From animals born in the Republic of Ireland (RoI). 

• Reared on a Quality Assured farm (or farms) in the RoI for at least 70 days continuously prior to slaughter for cattle, or 42 for days for sheep. 

• Processed at approved Quality Assured meat processing facilities in the RoI. 

• Packed at approved Bord Bia Quality Assured processing facility. 

Bord Bia operates Quality Assurance Schemes for the following: 
Beef, Lamb, Bacon, Chicken, Duck, Eggs, Fruit, Pork, Turkey and Vegetables. A substantial number of farmers/producers and processors are members of these schemes and therefore, a large range of food with the Bord Bia Q Mark is available from all the major supermarkets and other retail outlets. 

No, only beef and sheepmeat from the Republic of Ireland is authorised to carry the Bord Bia Quality Mark, as the scheme only include beef and sheep farmers within the Republic of Ireland. The Quality Mark is only carried on products from animals born, reared and processed in Ireland. 

Bord Bia stringently monitors and controls the use of the Bord Bia Quality Mark. However, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland is responsible for co-ordinating the enforcement of labelling and food safety legislation in Ireland, including country of origin claims. 

Yes, the integrity of Quality Assurance is of the utmost importance to Bord Bia and our farmer members. Together, we have built and invested in the Bord Bia Quality Assurance schemes over many years. 

Over 50,000 audits take place annually across the Bord Bia schemes with a total membership of 60,000. 

The schemes are accredited to IS EN ISO 9001:2008 with the National Standards Authority of Ireland and to the European Standard EN45011 / ISO 17065 – this means that the schemes are recognised internationally which is very important for exports. 

Bord Bia schemes are regularly audited to ensure that they are keeping pace with the best global standards. Therefore, the Bord Bia Quality Mark is a recognised and robust guarantee of origin, quality, and traceability.