Our new-found wealth means times and priorities have thankfully changed but buying Irish is still a concern. This time around its discerning diners who want to keep it local, partly in reaction to the litany of seemingly never-ending food scares.

First came the chicken imports complete with deviant beef and pork proteins. Then the barrels of Asian poultry breasts arrived bulked up with over 50% water. GM uncertainties and recent avian flu further ruffled feathers, gradually steering us back towards farm-fresh Irish produce.

With stricter EU legislation in place, buying Irish now offers us levels of quality reassurance that Thai or Brazilian imports can't guarantee. And with food miles the topic du jour at a dinner party near you, could you stand the shame of serving guests Argentine beef?

A recent survey carried out on behalf of Bord Bia confirms what every packed eatery on a once-fallow Tuesday night reveals - more of us than ever are dining out. What that deduction can't reveal is 77% of those surveyed professed a predilection towards restaurants with food traceability on the menu.

This preference for provenance was responded to back in 2001 when Bord Bia launched F�ile Bia, a dining-out initiative that encourages establishments to source as much locally available fresh produce as possible. Almost 1,500 pubs, restaurants and hotels have voluntarily signed up to the charter, guaranteeing all the fresh beef, lamb, pork, bacon, chicken and eggs they serve are certified as fully traceable from farm to fork, having been produced under a Quality Assurance Scheme.

Aside from independent policing, including random spot checks to ensure compliance, the diner now gets what the diner wants - quality ingredients with the country of origin listed on the menu.

F�ile Bia has been so positively received that many dedicated chefs have taken the concept one step further by including the provenance of other ingredients on their menus.

Who can deny the pleasure of dining out in Kerry/Wexford/ Connemara and ordering Dingle prawns/Duncannon cod/Renvyle scallops from the menu? There's simply a feel-good factor anonymous ingredients just can't elicit.

Without discounting the obvious health, economic and environmental benefits of sourcing fresh local produce, there's another reason we should all demand to eat local: it's a question of taste. Ireland produces so many wonderful ingredients, unrivalled the world over, and it's a fact of life that something caught or grown locally will have better flavour than the product that's racked up more air miles than a frequent flyer.

Check out www. bordbia. ie for a list of F�ile Bia members or look out for the F�ile Bia plaque.