Full Recall of Irish Pork Products

Saibh

would anyone know if this includes pork that was already in shops - bought some today for tomorrow's dinner

[EMAIL="http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1206/agriculture.html"]http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1206/agriculture.html[/EMAIL]

The Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Authority are investigating the discovery of a toxic substance in slaughtered pigs.
Movements of animals on up to ten farms have been restricted after the substance was found.
It is believed the animals were contaminated by animal feed.
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A major investigation is now underway and Department of Agriculture personnel have been holding meetings with experts this afternoon.

georgem25

Recall of Irish pork products announced
CONOR POPEAll Irsh pork products have been recalled from Irish shops tonight because of fears that animal feed has been contaminated with harmful toxins.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland made the announcement tonight after pork products on number of farms were found to have had between 80 and 200 times more dioxins that the recognised safety limit.

The contamination first came to light last Monday but was only confirmed by Government officials today.

The recall affects all products produced since September 1st and the public have been advised to destroy all pork bought since that date.
The recall will have severe repercussions for the State's pork industry which is worth close to half a billion euro annually.

The announcement was made at a joint press briefing held by the Departments of Health and Agriculture tonight.

Dioxins are complex organic compounds released into the atmosphere from fires and other forms of combustion. They are naturally occurring and accumulate in the fat of animal or in plant tissue.

They are mostly found in insignificant levels but a small number are highly toxic and can cause a range of ailments from cancer to skin diseases and damage to the reproductive and immune systems.

Consumption of dioxins above safe levels over a lifetime may result in an increased risk of cancer. The World Health Organisation and the European Unions’ Scientific Committee for Food have determined that exposure to dioxins at levels below 14 pg TEQ/kg b.w./week are safe.

In recent years, there have been a number of incidences of dioxin contamination of food worldwide.

In 1998 dioxin-contaminated citrus pulp from Brazil was used in feed for dairy animals in France and resulted in contaminated milk.

A year later in Belgium dioxin laden machine oil contaminated animal feed affecting poultry, eggs, red meat and milk which caused a major food crisis.

gerky

If the mods get a chance maybe they could change the title of this thread to say about the full recall as a lot of people mightn't see it otherwise.

Faith

Done.

kelle

Saibh wrote: »

would anyone know if this includes pork that was already in shops - bought some today for tomorrow's dinner

[EMAIL="http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1206/agriculture.html"]http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1206/agriculture.html[/EMAIL]

You've got to either dump it or return it to its place of purchase.
I'm in the same boat, I'm bringing it back as it cost me a small fortune!

Ian Beale

This is an absolute joke, 3 weeks before Christmas, the amount of stock that butcher shops are sitting on right now, the biggest selling thing next to turkeys at Christmas is pork and there saying they want a full recall?

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland is covering their asses. There won't be a full recall of every single pork product because not every farm in Ireland was effected and do you really think small butcher shops are going to stop selling pork? Not a chance in hell, the likes of the bigger supermarkets will probably get rid of their stock but the small shops will contact their suppliers with their traceability numbers for the past 3 months to find out if any of their meat was contaminated.

Unless I'm mistaken and they have said every single pig in Ireland was contaminated then good luck enforcing the recall.

spadder

I'm worried about this, the Mrs is pregnant, we have been eating pork at least twice a week. (more if you count ham sandwiches etc) could the PCB's have passed to the baby?

Where would I find this out?

On the News the IFA guy said it was localised, but did not give the area. Anyone know where?

Ian Beale

spadder wrote: »

I'm worried about this, the Mrs is pregnant, we have been eating pork at least twice a week. (more if you count ham sandwiches etc) could the PCB's have passed to the baby?

Where would I find this out?

On the News the IFA guy said it was localised, but did not give the area. Anyone know where?

They haven't reported the farms that were effected and to be honest I doubt they will tonight, if it was as bad as they were making out they would have put the word out to all pork suppliers in the country last Monday - I have not received one word from the FSA or from the Dept of Health and Agric, the first I've heard about this was when it was on the news.

Don't worry to much spadder you'd have to eat a lot of contaminated pork over a long period of time to be effected. I'd be interested to know how they've limited it to produce after the 1st of September.

spadder

Are you a farmer Ian? What have you heard?

Blood contaminations, cancer mis-diagnosis, I would not trust anything Harney and the dept of health says. It must be fairly urgent if they decide to go public on a Sat evening.

Ian Beale

spadder wrote: »

Are you a farmer Ian? What have you heard?

Blood contaminations, cancer mis-diagnosis, I would not trust anything Harney and the dept of health says. It must be fairly urgent if they decide to go public on a Sat evening.

I own a well known butcher shop in the east, for obvious reasons I'm not going to say which but I have had no contact from the FSA, they aren't saying which farms are possibly contaminated and it all seems quite strange. From what I have heard the contamination was from 1 feed supplier which thankfully that's easily traceable.
For now all I can suggest is sit tight and if you got your meat in a local butcher shop pop down on Monday and ask what have they heard from their supplier. To be honest I think their covering their asses as they have known since Monday that there was a possible contamination. As regards the €400m revenue generated every year by the pork sector, this has not just damaged pork suppliers but this will cripple small butcher shops as people will be cancelling their ham orders for Christmas.

Just to say I will be doing my utmost to inform my customers of any developments and I will be tracing back every single pig that has come through my shop for the past 4 months. It sounds more and more likely that these farms were not keeping tight traceability logs.

spadder

I understand the finacial implications could be huge, having a brief read through this. Could this affect cattle, dairy produce too?

http://www.fsai.ie/publications/info_notes/pcbs_dioxins_2008.pdf

edit: just saw contaminated feed was used on 38 cattle farms!

Ian Beale

spadder wrote: »

I understand the finacial implications could be huge, having a brief read through this. Could this affect cattle, dairy produce too?

http://www.fsai.ie/publications/info_notes/pcbs_dioxins_2008.pdf

That's whats very odd about this, I can't recall where I read this (I've read so many articles by now I've lost count) but they weren't investigating cattle any further which is very very strange considering a lot of the farms suspected of being contaminated are for beef farming.

kelle

Ian, I live in the northeast and on Friday morning I saw a lorry parked at the back yard of my local butcher's with "Not for Human Consumption" written on the trailer. According to the AH thread, this farm is located in the southeast. Is it possible my local butcher's meat was sourced from there, or did these lorries visit all Irish butchers?

Ian Beale

kelle wrote: »

Ian, I live in the northeast and on Friday morning I saw a lorry parked at the back yard of my local butcher's with "Not for Human Consumption" written on the trailer. According to the AH thread, this farm is located in the southeast. Is it possible my local butcher's meat was sourced from there, or did these lorries visit all Irish butchers?

Yes absolutely, butcher shops can source meat from wherever they want too as long as the meat is safe and in accordance to the strict safety regulations.

Bawn

spadder wrote: »

I'm worried about this, the Mrs is pregnant, we have been eating pork at least twice a week. (more if you count ham sandwiches etc) could the PCB's have passed to the baby?

Where would I find this out?

On the News the IFA guy said it was localised, but did not give the area. Anyone know where?

I too am worried. My Mrs is pregnant and we would eat a bit of pork. Does anyone know if this is something I should be concerned about?

Ian Beale

Bawn wrote: »

I too am worried. My Mrs is pregnant and we would eat a bit of pork. Does anyone know if this is something I should be concerned about?

Don't worry Bawn. You'll hear a lot of rubbish going around about the health risks their just covering their backsides, unless you eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner for the past 3 months even then you shouldn't worry to much. The % of contaminated meat is so low that chances are you may not have even eaten a piece.

rebel girl 15

From my reading of it, the reason it is a full recall is because the FSAI cannot trace for certain the exact meat that was contaminated.

Mr Magnolia

If you're worried the give them a shout:

FSA helpline: 1890 33 66 77

FSA website: www.fsai.ie

Khannie

rebel girl 15 wrote: »

From my reading of it, the reason it is a full recall is because the FSAI cannot trace for certain the exact meat that was contaminated.

So so bad. How much money is lack of traceability going to cost now?

I'm in Morocco. Irish pigs made the local news here along with images of shelves being cleared of pork products. God knows the damage this has done.

boredatwork82

Had some bacon there in me subway for lunch, beaut! I started suffering withdrawal symptoms after my beloved sausage rolls were gone from the canteen for brekkie. hopefully they sort it out quickly and get pork products back on the market,

In other pork related news The Vitners Federation of Ireland say it is an outrage, and have estimated that 150 drinkers will die of starvation this holiday season due to the unavailability of bacon fries. They have introduced a sponsor a drinker program, and hopefully the public will jump in to support this initiative. This will fund a meals on wheels type service to drinkers around the country. They have also commented on how this is sneaky government attack on the poor publican, who have never made a penny in their lives, and only own pubs so the old people in their community have a social outlet.
Age action Ireland has also accussed the government of not doing enough to protect elderly people and blame the contaminated pork on the governments secret plan to starve old fella drinkers, so they die, and reduce pension/health costs incurred by the state in keeping old fella alive.

KC81

given that the food safety authority did not detect this contamination i think it brings into question is how reliable is irish food safety testing( ive read reports it was detected by a food science student doing independent tests who then alerted his TD).

and i think it brings into question the use of ' recycled' food products being used to feed our animals.

Ciaran500

KC81 wrote: »

given that the food safety authority did not detect this contamination i think it brings into question is how reliable is irish food safety testing( ive read reports it was detected by a food science student doing independent tests who then alerted his TD).

Source?

KC81 wrote: »

and i think it brings into question the use of ' recycled' food products being used to feed our animals.

Why does it bring up that question? PCB's doesn't come from "recycled food products".

KC81

source: Initial reports on the news, irish independent.. it was cork td i think fianna gael.
well i mean in the regulation of this method. Pcb came from inappropriate oil being used to heat/ process the recycled products.
(though this is only a theory being brought forward). How many times has this happened before and why was it allowed to happen.
we dont know that the owner of this plant only recently changed the oil used or if other manufacturers had been doing it before as a cheaper option.
It seems to be that these plants arent being properly monitored.

I also think the reason for the full recall is that there was shortcomings in IFA's testing so they've recalled everything because they cant be sure anything they did test was correctly diagnosed as being clear of dioxins.

Ciaran500

KC81 wrote: »

we dont know that the owner of this plant only recently changed the oil used or if other manufacturers had been doing it before as a cheaper option.

Why would moving to a cheaper oil matter? The oil is meant to be kept completely separate from the food, it runs through pipes that heats the food.

But yes it does need more regulation, the last big PCB scare happened after a similar situation to this.

KC81

there were reports of an oil that wasnt of 'food standard' was being used.
thats why i assumed it was a cheaper oil.

brettmirl

KC81 wrote: »

source: Initial reports on the news, irish independent.. it was cork td i think fianna gael.
well i mean in the regulation of this method. Pcb came from inappropriate oil being used to heat/ process the recycled products.
(though this is only a theory being brought forward). How many times has this happened before and why was it allowed to happen.
we dont know that the owner of this plant only recently changed the oil used or if other manufacturers had been doing it before as a cheaper option.
It seems to be that these plants arent being properly monitored.

Yeah it was in the Irish Independent on Saturday alright, but I can't find the story on their website.

adamski8

saw in tesco today that the pig meat selves were empty but around the corner in the "reduced price/clearance" section which have todays best before days on them i saw many pork products there

carveone

KC81 wrote: »

source: Initial reports on the news, irish independent.. it was cork td i think fianna gael.

I think we can expect the usual standard of journalism - let's hand wave and make allegations. I wonder what the Sun is saying today... Toxic pork... telling porkies... Ah yes, good stuff.

It was a routine sample which showed the problem; a standard alert went out and was confirmed by a similar notice from Belgium. After tracing back to farm of origin, the food samples were sent to the UK for precision analysis. Of course, this comes up in the papers as "Ireland not capable of analysing samples", which leads to Fianna Gael embarrassing itself by moaning about this...

Hell, I saw someone on the news yesterday contradict himself within two minutes: "dioxins 200 times normal in the feed", followed by "dioxins 200 times normal in the pigs". Well, which is it.

Lack of complete info is kinda strange. They're saying 10 pig farms were affected. Out of how many? I mean if it's just 1% of pork that's affected, it's not going to bother me. Especially considering that the guy down the road from me burning his rubbish in his fireplace is producing more dioxins than I'll ever see in pork...

This might have just been an accident, maybe oil leaked onto the feed somewhere and it wasn't picked up until the next test cycle. Happens. I'm bemused at why beef isn't affected though.

Oh and "recycled food" means all the supermarket food which isn't eaten - mostly bread and biscuits which are past sell by date. Sounds fine to me.

KC81

mick_irl wrote: »

Yeah it was in the Irish Independent on Saturday alright, but I can't find the story on their website.

yes they seemed to have removed all traces of it.,It was also stated on rte's website and now no longer there either.
If you notice also none of the government officials speaking are saying how the case arose and i think they are trying to cover their tracks.
they must be fuming they cant blame the farmers haha.

KC81

beef isnt affected as they are fed on grass mostly (hence why u see them in the fields).
there have been reports in the past about irish food safety testing not being good enough.
and whatever about sending samples to england. that wouldnt reassure me.

carveone

KC81 wrote: »

there were reports of an oil that wasnt of 'food standard' was being used.
thats why i assumed it was a cheaper oil.

Yeah, I heard that one too. Someone was talking bollox. As usual. The Department of Agriculture says that oil is not added to the food at any point. They're now theorising that oil fumes got to the food somewhere.

The media are going full bore to damage the hell out of our native industry by speculating, hand waving and just making stuff up. And then removing it from their website before someone sues them.
The supermarkets will be fine; the butchers, farmers and everyone in the middle are going to get hosed - just in time for Christmas. It's hard to know with the Irish consumer though: Will most just shrug and say "yeah, whatever. Give us a sausage roll (mmmmmm, sausagerollssss)." Or will they start cancelling hams and things?

carveone

KC81 wrote: »

beef isnt affected as they are fed on grass mostly (hence why u see them in the fields).

Doh! Good point there kc81 :P

there have been reports in the past about irish food safety testing not being good enough.
and whatever about sending samples to england. that wouldnt reassure me.

I'm not sure really. I'm sure our labs are perfectly fine for general testing. I think when it comes to a full breakdown and analysis, the labs wouldn't be able to justify the equipment cost. Maybe it's like our labs can say: "there's poo in the water". But if they want a DNA analysis of the precise sources of said poo, they have to send it to the UK. Which seems like a reasonable situation - 99.9% of people would only care about the existence of the poo, and would be less interested in the details

JP Liz

Trade unions say they hope hundreds of people laid off in the pig-meat processing sector over the past week will be able to resume their jobs in the coming days.

Pig factories across the country have been closed since Saturday's announcement that animals on a number of farms had eaten feed contaminated with dioxins.

Thousands of workers are believed to have been laid off or put on protective notice as a result.

Processors had been refusing to reopen their factories until agreement was reached with the Government on a compensation package.

Last night, the two sides concluded a deal on a €180m scheme.

So we should have our pork back for the weekend

Dizzyblonde

Christmas is saved

murfie

What boogles my mind is the brands that claim are irish pork that were not at all. Galtee sausages and rashers! Not even irish! I always thought Galtee was irish?! good marketing i guess! ha

UrbanSea

this might sound ignorant,but i have a huge craving for pizza tomorrow. does anyone know is pepporoni pork?( i strongly assume it is?) and is it an irish product? are four star pizza still serving their pepporoni?

Solitaire

Dizzyblonde wrote:

Christmas is saved

Any chance there'll be any *smoked* ham before chrimbo??? (can't remember curing duration...) If not then Christmas isn't saved...

Dizzyblonde

I'd say there will - surely they'll have been smoked since before Sept 1?

Solitaire

Pre-September ham is long gone. And everything cured since then has been put in the bin to prevent the EU unleashing the wrath of God on us :rolleyes:

Ian Beale

Solitaire wrote: »

everything cured since then has been put in the bin to prevent the EU unleashing the wrath of God on us :rolleyes:

No it hasn't, any supplier who didn't have any contact with the affected farms and feed supplier got to keep that pork for resale.