Pork recall-what should the public know?

spadder

The Mrs is pregnant, we have been eating pork at least twice a week, I am now very concerned that the PCB’s may have passed to the baby. What should we do?

I don’t trust anything the FSA or the Dept of health say. They are telling peolple not to worry, that you need to have long term exposure for it to harm you, however they don't mention pregnant women or children.

jen_23

Hey Spadder,

There are a few threards started on this already that you may find of some help.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055435388&highlight=pork+recall
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055435416&highlight=pork+recall
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055435334&highlight=pork+recall
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055435461&highlight=pork+recall

Do you buy your pork from the same place all the time? A supervalu/ dunnes / local butchers?
There will most likely be a scurry on all tracability in these places to see whether the contaminated meat has been purchased by the retailers.
You can ask to see their tracability records (which by law every shop selling meat products is supposed to have with a number of years so don't accept an excuse that they don't have it. It's law)
Or at the least they can tell you that their traceabilty records shown they have or have not sold the contaminated meat.

They can confirm to you whether they sold any of the contaminated pork in the shop since septmeber.

jen_23

Also you can get your PCB levels checked if you are very worried.
However I would only do this if you had been eating pork every day as it is a very expensive procedure which won't result in a treatment plan unfortunatley.
All you would get out of this is peace of mind.
Though you can also get your breast milk checked for PCB levels which would be nice to know if you were planning on breast feeding.

Just a note that everyone has some low level of PCB in there bodies naturally.

Ian Beale

jen_23 wrote: »

There will most likely be a scurry on all tracability in these places to see whether the contaminated meat has been purchased by the retailers.
You can ask to see their tracability records (which by law every shop selling meat products is supposed to have with a number of years so don't accept an excuse that they don't have it. It's law)
Or at the least they can tell you that their traceabilty records shown they have or have not sold the contaminated meat.

They can confirm to you whether they sold any of the contaminated pork in the shop since septmeber.

Pigs don't have traceability numbers only cows do. That's why its country wide, if they had traceability it could have been contained.

spadder

A Prof. on newstalk this morning said he would consider short term exposure to PCB's as 1 week! not 3-4months as the government are claimimg.

Ian Beale

spadder wrote: »

A Prof. on newstalk this morning said he would consider short term exposure to PCB's as 1 week! not 3-4months as the government are claimimg.

Ah yes the so called professor from UCC, don't mind him every other expert is saying the exact opposite and their rubbishing his claims. Don't worry its not just the Irish government saying its long term exposure, scientists and professors in England and Scotland have said its long term and you'd have to eat a massive amount to be effected.

jen_23

Ian Beale wrote: »

Pigs don't have traceability numbers only cows do. That's why its country wide, if they had traceability it could have been contained.

Is it just suermarkets/ butchers then?
As there is some sort of tracability out there as to the movements of pigs supposedly in place since 2002.

National Pig Identification and Tracing System (NPITS)

The NPITS provides the Irish pig industry a complete farm traceability for pigs. This underpins consumer assurance, disease control and disease eradication programmes.

The new national system for the identification and tracing of pigs (NPITS) came into effect in July 2002. This system provides for registration and identification of all of the country’s pig herds. All movements of pigs are recorded on a centrally managed database. Movements whether inter herd or to mart, factory or export are recorded. The notification system, which is paperless, has been designed to be user friendly and simple to operate.

All pig producers are required to use the DAF issued herd identifiers when trading. Both consignors and consignees of pigs are required to notify to the central database with the details of all movements.

The NPITS provide a uniform and reliable means of both recording and tracing pig movements into, out of and within Ireland, whether for reasons of disease monitoring / control, customer assurance or other concerns.

Vince135792003

Sorry I posted in the wrong thread feel free to delete my post.

Ian Beale

jen_23 wrote: »

Is it just suermarkets/ butchers then?
As there is some sort of tracability out there as to the movements of pigs supposedly in place since 2002.

Sorry I should have explained further, the pigs are traceable from the farm to the slaughter houses to the suppliers which then supply butcher shops/supermarkets. However supermarkets/shops aren't given herd numbers or id tags to record on their books, so if a supplier hasn't been keeping detailed accounts of where each pig went to from each lot that's where the problem is.

The only thing we can do is call our suppliers and see if they know if any possible contaminated pigs were sent to each shop - and there's the problem if they can't say for 100% certainty then all stock must be disposed of. Also if they come back and say pig XXXXX which was sent to you on such and such a date, shops have no way of tracing it. Personally I wish they would give us the herd/lot numbers of the pigs and lambs that are sent out but were only given the beef numbers.

jen_23

Thanks Ian.

I had to ring a butcher friend of mine as well as I couldn't understand why we had it for beef and not for pigs.
I imagine it will be in place after this. Or atleast I hope so!!

Thanks again for explaining it to me:)

Ian Beale

jen_23 wrote: »

Thanks Ian.

I had to ring a butcher friend of mine as well as I couldn't understand why we had it for beef and not for pigs.
I imagine it will be in place after this. Or atleast I hope so!!

Thanks again for explaining it to me:)

They've made a pigs ear of it (Had to get that in at some point) There bringing out a new labelling system for pigs slaughtered tomorrow onwards, why they didn't bother to do this when they brought in the beef regulations is ridiculous.
Oh and just so everyone knows its the same story with lamb so next year we might recall all the lamb to bring in a system for that too:rolleyes:

DrIndy

dioxins are cumulative but potent cancer causing chemicals. Fortunately the EU rules are very strict indeed and anything but the microscopic traces found are illegal.

I just think this is another tragedy of the irish food industry - where greed surpasses sense and safety.

It mirrors the BSE crisis where costs were cut and animals became cannibals, to save a few pennies.

xeroshero

Ian Beale wrote: »

if they come back and say pig XXXXX which was sent to you on such and such a date, shops have no way of tracing it. QUOTE]


Ah, I don't quite agree with you here.. Yes, the shops themselvescan not directly trace it butthere is traceability there... All meat sent out has batch codes and use by dates - this is all fully traceable by the factory/supplier of the (processed) meat. So its not very fair to say there is no traceability...

The suppiers/factories can then trace back to their raw meat suppliers and in turn they can/should be able to trace back to the farms...