Earlier this week, an international recall of Irish pork products prompted more than 20 countries to clear their shelves of these products as 80-200 times of the legal level of dioxin is said to have been found in 10 pig farms. In some forms and after a long exposure to the substance, dioxin can cause cancer and fertility problems.
On the other hand, one of the world’s top five beef exporters asserted there is no need to recall any Irish beef products as the level of dioxin found in Irish cows is much lower than the ones discovered in the pig farms.
Agencies add:
Ireland’s food scare crisis spread Tuesday as officials said cancer-linked chemicals had been found in cows as well as pigs, but insisted the risk to human health was minimal.
Farm minister Brendan Smith said only three cattle herds had shown illegal levels of dioxins, the substance which led to a domestic and international recall of Irish pork products at the weekend.
Officials said there would be no total recall of beef, Ireland’s most important agricultural product which is worth 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) annually.

“To all intents and purposes this is not a public health issue,” Smith said, adding that the public risks “are extremely low”.
“We do not expect to see symptoms occurring as a consequence in this,” he told journalists in Dublin.
“The results show that eight out of the 11 herds are clear and three are above the proposed legislative limits” for the dioxins, which stemmed from contaminated animal feed, Smith said.
“This would make the samples technically non-compliant but not at a level that would pose any public health concern,” he added.
The Irish government said any cows above the legal limit would be removed from the food and animal feed chain and any products from these animals would not be released into the market.
Dr Alan Reilly of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said that on the three farms that showed signs of dioxins “they were only two to three times above the limits”.

In contrast, tests on pigs that had eaten the tainted feed were 80 to 200 times above the safe limits.
Reilly said in the case of the cows, “the adverse health effects for consumption over a short period of this type of elevated level is not going to adversely affect public health so we are not concerned.”
The lower level of contamination in cows can be explained by the fact cattle are largely fed on grass, and because beef is often stored to age before being sold — much of the meat produced during the scare would still be in storage.
“The products that we have in store from the farms that have tested positive and above this particular limit, that produce will not be allowed onto the market,” Reilly said.
The three farms affected have been sealed off and all the cattle there will be tested.
Ireland sounded the alarm on Saturday, recalling all pork products made since September 1 after dioxins, which in high doses can cause cancer, were found in slaughtered pigs thought to have eaten tainted feed.

The European Commission said Monday that 12 EU states and nine other countries around the world including Japan and South Korea might have received contaminated pork or pig meat products.
With pig meat processors warning that 6,000 jobs are at risk in their industry as a result of the scare, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen told parliament Tuesday he wanted pork back on the market as soon as possible.
Cowen said the government had shown “zero tolerance” of any contaminated meat and Dublin was taking a three-pronged approach.
Pig or beef herds that had shown contamination would be destroyed, an EU risk analysis would be used to ensure a range of products are safe and marketable and then slaughtering and processing would be restored.
The European Commission confirmed on Tuesday that the source of the dioxin contamination was a plant in southeast Ireland which recycles bread and dough to make animal feed.
A spokesman for the EU farm commissioner said there was “no legal basis” for Brussels to compensate Irish farmers affected by the crisis, after Cowen said he would ask for European financial assistance.

Dioxin
Used oil from electrical transformers may have caused the dioxin contamination in animal feed that has led to an international recall of Irish pork products, the Irish Times reported on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, more than 20 countries cleared their shelves of Irish pork after dioxins up to 200 times the legal levels were found on 10 pig farms.
The Irish Times, without citing sources, said the contamination may have been caused by waste oil originating in Northern Ireland that should have been stored or destroyed.
The farm ministry said it was not in a position to comment on its investigations into the contamination. Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency, which is assisting the ministry in the probe, also declined to comment.
Irish officials confirmed Tuesday that cattle at three farms have tested positive for dioxin — the cancer-causing chemical that has contaminated its pork industry — but insisted the country’s beef posed no real risk to health.

Ireland has already ordered the withdrawal and destruction of all pork products produced since Sept 1, a sweeping move the government says should reinforce — not undermine — international confidence in Ireland’s food exports.
But Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith said the government decided not to recall any Irish beef products at home or abroad because, unlike the contamination of pork products, the level and extent of dioxin found so far in cattle is much lower.
Smith said the cattle with excessive dioxin levels were “technically noncompliant, but not at a level that would pose any public health concern.” Still, he said Ireland would prevent the movement of any cattle or beef from the three farms in question.

Source: Arab Times