The recall involved products processed since September 1 sold in Ireland and abroad and has caused panic in the Emerald Isle, where many families would have been buying their traditional Christmas ham in the coming days. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
DUBLIN (Ireland) - OIL that ended up in animal feed could force Ireland to destroy 100,000 pigs, food safety officials said on Monday as the European Union advised that nations did not need to ban Irish pork imports.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has traced the problem to machine oil added to foodstuffs at one small animal-food maker in southeast Ireland. The maker, Millstream Power Recycling Ltd., supplied the oil-tainted feed to 10 pig farms in the Republic of Ireland and nine others in the British territory of Northern Ireland.
THE Irish government ordered the food industry on Saturday to recall all locally produced pork products from shops, restaurants and plants because of contamination with dioxin, which can cause cancer.
Ten farms in Ireland and nine in Northern Ireland had used contaminated pig feed, and both Britain and Ireland told consumers not to eat any Irish pork products, though the risk to public health was considered extremely low.
DUBLIN - CONTAMINATED Irish pig meat may have been exported to up to 25 countries, Ireland's chief vet said on Sunday, as shops at home and abroad cleared out pork products amid fears of a cancer link.
'We believe it's in the order of 20 to 25 countries. It's certainly less than 30,' Mr Paddy Rogan said in comments quoted by the Irish media.
The Irish government revealed the potential threat to health Saturday and ordered the recall or destruction of all Irish pork products produced since Sept. 1. It now faces an uphill struggle to restore international confidence in an industry worth more than 450 million euro (S$1 billion) annually.
But the Agriculture Department's chief veterinary adviser, Paddy Rogan, said the oil-tainted product never went to the vast majority of Ireland's approximately 500 pig farms. He said slaughtering and processing of meat from many farms could resume Monday - to be accompanied by specially designed labels 'so the consumer will be absolutely crystal clear that this is safe Irish product'.
While such moves could minimize the damage to sales in Ireland itself, the country faces a harder time convincing customers overseas to resume accepting Irish sausages, ham, bacon and pork-based ingredients so quickly.
Mr Rogan said about 25 other countries could have received Irish pork with the contamination problem.
Japan, Singapore and South Korea announced on Monday they were suspending imports of Irish pork indefinitely. But the 27-nation European Union in Brussels, Belgium said no nation needed to ban Irish imports of pork, citing Ireland's own strong actions and the low risk from short-term consumption of the toxins in question.
To that end, many nations in Europe and Asia scrambled to determine whether any Irish pork goods were on their store shelves and remove them. Germany, the No. 2 importer of Irish pork behind Britain, said it had received 2.4 tonnes of Irish pork since Sept 1, largely in the form of unprocessed meat, and found Irish-sourced pork in products at five supermarkets.
Ireland is not a significant exporter of pork to the United States, Canada and Brazil - Ireland's major competitors outside Europe for the international export of pork.
Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, said its detectives were involved in trying to identify what went wrong in the production, distribution and screening of feed produced by Millstream - and criminal charges were a possibility.
The company itself said the oil appeared to have come from a machine used to dry out-of-date bread and dough being converted into a breadcrumb mix.
'Millstream will be carrying out a full investigation to establish how the company's strict health and safety procedures and the high quality standards could possibly have been breached,' it said in a statement. -- AP
