Chef Darina Allen has warned that Ireland is moving too slowly to protect its traditional and ethnic foods from imitation.
The criticism came as it emerged that Ireland has one of the shortest lists of protected foods in the EU and it was not adding these protected foods to a special list of such agricultural products for greater protection in the World Trade Talks (WTO).
Only Irish Whiskey, Irish Cream Liqueur, Immokilly Regato Cheese, Clare Island Salmon and Timoleague Brown Pudding have been registered on the PDO, PGI and TSG lists at EU level.
However, the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), PGI (Protected Geographical Indication and TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed) listing for Ireland is among the shortest in the EU. There are over 500 items from across the union on the lists.
Ms Allen said that Ireland did not appear to have the political will or the knowledge to move to register very important foods which were truly Irish.
"For instance, we should be registering items like the barm brack, potato cakes, fudge from the North and many more of our cheeses," she said.
"We also have very rare breeds of Irish apples, and vegetables like the Tipperary turnip and some of our breeds of cabbage and potato."
"Most people are unaware that we have developed a tradition of making great cheeses. There are four cheese schools in France and they are sending their students to Ireland to learn how to do the business properly," Ms Allen said.
"While the speciality sector is small, it is becoming very valuable and thankfully Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, has identified this," she added.
"However, we need someone at EU level who truly understands the importance of what we have here and we must move to protect it from imitation," she said.
It emerged this week that many of our European neighbours are moving to have their foods protected by the EU and one of the most recent of a flood of applications is for the registration of Choucroute d'Alsase and Termera Ausuriana.
The United Kingdom has, for instance, already registered Orkney beef, Orkney lamb, Scotch beef, Scotch lamb, Shetland lamb, Welsh beef and Welsh lamb. Ireland has no listing at all in these categories other than Timoleague Brown Pudding.
During the WTO talks, where the EU is attempting to secure more protection for agricultural foodstuffs under the TRIPS (trade related aspects of intellectual property rights) agreement, the Government decided not to add any of the protected designations to the EU list.
This, said the Department of Agriculture and Food at the weekend, was on the basis that there was no justification for doing so as there was no evidence that these designations had been usurped, trademarked or were considered to be generic in third countries.