The Irish Food Safety Authority has ordered the withdrawal and recall of all Irish pork products dating back to 1 September.

It follows the discovery of the dioxin PCB in pork at levels between 80 and 200 times the safe limits.

The contamination of the pork arose following the contamination of feed for pigs.

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.

It is understood that contaminated feed was used at a total of 37 farms, 29 of which were pork farms and the other eight were beef farms.

But the FSA has advised that it is not necessary at this time to have a similar withdrawal of beef products.

The Taoiseach and Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith, have attended crisis talks at the Department of Agriculture following the discovery of the toxic substance in slaughtered pigs.

The discovery has provoked concern in the farming community.

The pork industry is the fourth biggest in the agriculture sector and is worth around EUR400 million per year.

The movement of animals at some 30 farms has been restricted.

A major investigation has been launched by the Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Authority.

Fine Gael's spokesperson on agriculture, Michael Creed described the discovery as potentially the biggest threat to the agri-food sector since the outbreak Foot & Mouth disease.

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

Ireland's farms produce more than 3 million pigs a year, nearly half of which are consumed within the Republic of Ireland. But Irish pork also is heavily exported to neighboring Northern Ireland and Britain _ and appears in grocery stores and processed meats through much of Europe and Asia.

Last year Ireland exported 113,000 tons of pig meat, nearly half of that to the United Kingdom. Ireland also shipped more than 500,000 live pigs to the UK for slaughter and processing there.

Ireland's other major customers for pork are Germany, which bought 9,000 tons last year; France, Italy and several Eastern European countries, which together took more than 20,000 tons; Russia, 6,600 tons, and China, 1,100 tons.

more: http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=111&sid=1540262

I wonder why it's taken 3 months to make this public?  And the authorities wonder why the public are either confused or take no notice of them. :(

> I wonder why it's taken 3 months to make this public?

It says in the report it was only confirmed that afternoon.
Otterhound, if you are posting a link you do not have to cut and paste it as well, infact we are requested by Admin to only use links rather than large chunks of text :-)

> we are requested by Admin to only use links

Its the 10th point down in Champdogs ~ Terms of Service

Thanks for the Heads up Otterhound, wonder if they'll have something on Countryfile about it today.

>Its the 10th point down in Champdogs ~ Terms of Service

You mean the 11th ... ;-)

we only eat meat that our brother has  bred/reared....no one elses and i dont think theyve ever been to ireland! :) :)

I don't eat meat, so it's all the same to me.

We should be wary of eating UK pork too, because some of the affected pork was from N Ireland.  I don't see that disappearing from the shelves yet.

I'm afraid that I don't believe government reassurances that anything's safe these days.  Last week Irish pork was OK, this week it isn't! :(

Last week I brought a whole ham from Tescos cost me £50
I rang them about it only to be told that there is only a small risk but if I wanted
to take it back I would need my receipt which I didnt keep as it was only food shopping,
seems I can eat it or chuck it.

Has it got Tesco's on the packaging????
If they are recalling the meat, then that, I would guess is deemed as the goods are faulty.
If goods are faulty you only need proof of purchase, NOT a receipt. So, if the packaging has Tescos on it then that would be deemed as proof of purchase, and you should be able to get your money back :) :)
HTH
Lea :) :)

So glad I only eat free range pork now - that choice forces me to buy my porky things from The Pink Pig nearby, it's an organic farm that raises its own pigs.  So I'm not worried.  And it's blummin gorgeous too ;-)

We buy our whole pig butchered from a organic farm down the road, so 100% pure Scottish pork, that tastes better than the supermarket stuff!