The Irish Farmers' Association has called for mandatory labelling of pork products with the country of origin of the meat after DNA testing showed large amounts of non-Irish pork being presented as Irish.
The organisation commissioned DNA testing company Identigen to test 300 pork samples and compare the results against a complete DNA database of Irish boars.
The results showed 52% of rashers tested were not from Irish pigs.
While the IFA says no laws have been broken and retailers can legally label non-Irish products as being 'Produced in Ireland' if they have processed it further, it says customers have a right to know if what they think is Irish, actually is.
The Food Safety Authority said pig meat products do not have to display the country of origin on the label, unless the absence of this information could mislead consumers as to the true origin of the food.
The IFA study found Lidl's Glensallagh bacon joint labelled as 'Produced in Ireland' was not Irish pork.
In a statement the supermarket said it would never seek to intentionally mislead customers and its Glensallgh range of products carry one of two distinct logos - 'Produce of Ireland' and 'Produced in Ireland'.
The company said pork marked 'Produce of Ireland' is 100% Irish while products with the 'Produced in Ireland' logo are made by Irish suppliers but do not contain 100% Irish pork.
A spokesperson for J Crowe & Sons said: "We apologise unreservedly to our customers for the error made.
“The product in question is outsourced and as soon as we were made aware of the issues from the IFA we set about rectifying the problem.
“We have now put in place procedures to ensure that this cannot happen again. As proud producers of Irish produce we fully support the IFA in highlighting issues such as this for consumers. We are fully committed to only using Irish products and fully support the Irish Pork industry.”
John Waters of Thurles Bacon told RTÉ that as far as he knew he was using Irish pork in his products, but he learned today that he was on occasion given non-Irish pork by a supplier.
