Written question asked by Owen Paterson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 18 November 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 20 November 2003. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Thursday, 20 November 2003 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of (a) visual inspection and (b) other means in ensuring that consignments of potatoes are free from infection of bacterial ring rot; and what methods are available to determine the presence of bacterial ring rot in consignments of potatoes. - Including ref to DIR93/85/EEC.

Answer: Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of (a) visual inspection and (b) other means in ensuring that consignments of potatoes are free from infection of bacterial ring rot; and what methods are available to determine the presence of bacterial ring rot in consignments of potatoes. [140319] Mr. Bradshaw: The information is as follows: (a) All Plant Health and Seeds Inspectors are fully trained in the visual identification of potato ring rot and there is no evidence to suggest that this training is not effective although ring rot is known to exist sometimes in a latent, symptomless form, which is why visual inspections are supplemented by laboratory testing. (b) An annual survey for ring rot is carried out by the Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate which involves taking samples of seed and ware potatoes from a representative sample of growers. The survey is a requirement of EC Council Directive 93/85/EEC of 4 October 1993 which also lays down details of the required testing methodology. In addition, all imported seed potatoes entering the seed potato classification scheme are tested for the presence of potato ring rot.

Secondary information