The Food Safety Authority has asked consumers to destroy all pork bought since 1 September following the discovery of the dioxin PCB at 80 to 200 times the safe limits in animal feed being used on 37 farms.


Wonder will the supermarkets refund? They sold us the damn stuff.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1206/agriculture.html

Wonder where we will all get our ham for Christmas dinner now.

Rashers....

johnfás wrote:

The Food Safety Authority has asked consumers to destroy all pork bought since 1 September following the discovery of the dioxin PCB at 80 to 200 times the safe limits in animal feed being used on 37 farms.


Wonder will the supermarkets refund? They sold us the damn stuff.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1206/agriculture.html

They couldn't have known though surely?

Quote :

It follows the discovery of a contaminant in pig feed by a dioxin known as PCB at levels between 80 and 200 times the safe limits.

PCBs are highly dangerous man-made chemicals that were banned in 1979. They effect the immune and reproductive systems and can, in certain cases, cause cancers.

Cancers ... ?

Quote :

They can still be found in certain products made before the ban came into force.

The contamination first came to light last Monday, but the positive tests in the pork was only confirmed this afternoon.

The public have been advised to destroy all pork products
purchased since September.

How many sausage have ye eaten since September ? Me, a fair lot. Even today in Dunnes I had a chunk of some PCB infested sausages, possibly

I try to eat as little pig meat as possible. When both the jews and muslims agree that if is vile then it is worth thinking they might have a point.

You are a goner, Audi.

RTE news at 6.00 p.m. managed to report this without passing on any advice to the public.

PCBs have wiped out the otter population from most of Europe: they generally accumulate more the higher you are up the food chain.

It affects the immune and the reproductive systems youngdan. Fair points about the Jews and Muslims.

God I love crispy pork scratchings, rashers with maple syrup, sausages, ham, roasts, chops, bacon and cabbage even

I just checked a packet of Lidl pork chops and they are from Northern Ireland (Dungannon) so if you are desperate for your fix head to Lidl.

Obviously Kate P's husband would murder me for promoting another jurisdiction's agricultural sector...

I just read the Pin thread on it.

I'm dying for a pork chop or a sausage roll now but I feel I've got a bit of a temperature though ..

johnfás wrote:

I just checked a packet of Lidl pork chops and they are from Northern Ireland (Dungannon) so if you are desperate for your fix head to Lidl.

Obviously Kate P's husband would murder me for promoting another jurisdiction's agricultural sector...

That is no guarantee of safety. Food stuffs available to farmers in the Republic could also have been available in the North. Even if banned in the north it would stop it as there is effectively one market for food stuffs. Without an enforced border what happens down south can happen up north too.

According to the News tonight

The PCBs "came to light last Monday" but they have only now decided to tell us not to eat it.

The FSA guy sounds very shaken.

This is running on the English and European news channels:

47 farms are affected. There is only one feed supplier involved.

If the PCBs were banned in 1979, how the heck were they still going into feed?

There was a spillage into the River Nore back in the 1970s and there is still a fish ban in space on some stretches of the river.

Do they still stop you bringing meat across European borders? We have family coming over from England for Christmas... hopefully they will bring us some ham

cactus flower wrote:

According to the News tonight

The PCBs "came to light last Monday" but they have only now decided to tell us not to eat it.

The FSA guy sounds very shaken.

This is running on the English and European news channels:

47 farms are affected. There is only one feed supplier involved.

If the PCBs were banned in 1979, how the heck were they still going into feed?

There was a spillage into the River Nore back in the 1970s and there is still a fish ban in space on some stretches of the river.

This is a potentially massive story. The export of Irish pork will be killed stone dead internationally. So it will massive export damage. At a time when the Irish economy is on the ropes, this is an absolute disaster.

And that is before the health issues are dealt with. I do eat a lot of pork and for the last couple of weeks have had a problem with rashes appearing. They happened to occur around the time the amount of pork-based products I eat increased. Severe rashes are a side effect of PCBs. The rashes may not be linked, but it is worrying as to the timespan of when they occurred so I am going to have to spend Monday morning with the doctor to see if there is a link. I know a couple of other people who also have noticed they had a sudden appearance of rashes in October and November, and none of them had any other logical explanation as to what was causing them or why they suddenly appeared.

Ironically it makes me feel almost sorry for Cowen. With all the problems he faces (a lot his own doing) he must have thought that everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. And now he finds the entire Irish pork industry is facing a massive sudden crisis. Is there nothing that cannot go wrong for Cowen?

Papal Knight wrote:

Ironically it makes me feel almost sorry for Cowen. With all the problems he faces (a lot his own doing) he must have thought that everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. And now he finds the entire Irish pork industry is facing a massive sudden crisis. Is there nothing that cannot go wrong for Cowen?

Maybe he's cursed! Should we sacrifice him to appease the gods!!!?

yehbut_nobut wrote:

Papal Knight wrote:

Ironically it makes me feel almost sorry for Cowen. With all the problems he faces (a lot his own doing) he must have thought that everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. And now he finds the entire Irish pork industry is facing a massive sudden crisis. Is there nothing that cannot go wrong for Cowen?

Maybe he's cursed! Should we sacrifice him to appease the gods!!!?

Napoleon talked about wanting lucky generals. Cowen is not lucky.

Oh this is not good. I would have thought the big food processors did spot checking on their raw materials for this kind of thing.

This says the effect of the dioxins will be cumulative and appear over time - it will have no immediate effects. Are you sure you're not allergic to other stuff in the food Batman ?

Quote :

Dioxins have never been produced intentionally. They may be formed as unwanted by-products in a variety of industrial and combustion processes, as well as household fires. Most industrial releases of dioxins are strictly controlled under pollution prevention and control regulations.

PCBs have been used since the early 1930s, mainly in electrical equipment. The manufacture and general use of PCBs stopped in the 1970s and is no longer permitted in the UK. The only PCBs remaining in use in the UK are sealed inside some older electrical equipment. However, use of this equipment must be phased out and the PCBs removed and destroyed under UK regulations.

Dioxins and PCBs from these various sources may be released in small quantities to air, water or land.

What will dioxins do to me?

Dioxins and PCBs have no immediate effect on health, even at the highest levels found in foods. The potential risks to health come from long-term exposure to high levels. They have been shown to cause a wide range of effects, including cancer and damage to the immune and reproductive systems in certain animals, although it appears that people may be less sensitive.

Can dioxins and PCBs be removed from food?

There is very little scope for removal of dioxins and PCBs from foods once they have entered the food chain. It is generally agreed that the best method of preventing dioxins and PCBs from entering the food chain is to control releases of these chemicals to the environment.

How can I avoid eating foods containing dioxins and PCBs?

Dioxins and PCBs are found at low levels in all foods, including foods that are important sources of nutrients. The Agency's advice is that the benefits of a healthy, balanced diet, outweigh any risks from dioxins and PCBs.

How do dioxin and PCB intakes from food compare with other countries?

Intakes in the UK are similar to those in the EU and USA. Intakes are falling and have reduced by 85% since 1982.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/18412.php

Rashs are the first signs of dioxin poisoning. Remember what happened in Italy in the mid eighties. It attacks the brain. Have you noticed signs of hostility, bitterness and paranoia towards yours friends. Then the victim begins rambling and having flashbacks to happier times.

Looks like you are a goner too

Papal Knight wrote:

Napoleon talked about wanting lucky generals. Cowen is not lucky.

No he is not. I bet his Lotto numbers come up every time he forgets to buy a ticket.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Oh this is not good. I would have thought the big food processors did spot checking on their raw materials for this kind of thing.

Twice a year, apparently. Does anyone remember the aldicarb incident in the early 1990s? As far as I know, no action was taken by the FSA even though the product was used in a way contradictory to the advice clearly set out on the labels.

'Tis the top story on the BBC News RSS feed.

Anyone remember a mineral water called Perrier ?

Tis. Bad news for exports. We could export it to somewhere though and have a Pork Tribunal later.

What are we going to do now, cull them all ? All the piggies, little piggies squirming in the dirt ...



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7769391.stm

There were arrests in Belgium in 1992 in a similar incident.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Legislation/Belgian-agriculture-official-arrested-amid-pig-feed-scandal

This is a scientific report on the Belgian case. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13464667


The Independent says this is something to do with bread wrappers (past sell by date bread being part of the poor pigs diet). Surely this isn't credible? Why would there be high levels of PCBs in bread wrappers?
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/pig-sales-banned-as-inspectors-probe-toxic-feed-scare