Dioxin scare leads to recall of pork products
Back in March I wrote about the dioxin scare associated with mozzarella cheese. This morning the media is full of stories surrounding the fact that all pork products made in the Irish Republic since September (that have not already been eaten) are being recalled following concerns that they may be contaminated with dioxin. It is believed that the pigs ate contaminated feed. The BBC report that tests showed some pork products contained up to 200 times more dioxins than the recognised safety limit. The FSAI has issued a preliminary press release.
It has not been confirmed whether any of the pork products have been exported to the UK, although approxiamtely 60% of its production is exported worth £216 million per year. This problem comes after issues in the summer for the FSAI with Salmonella Agona contamination.
The BBC article stated that "The Irish minister for agriculture, Brendan Smith, said the problem was confined to 47 farms. He said: "This includes 38 beef farms. This is the total number of farms identified as having received possible contaminated animal feed. There is only one feed supplier involved." The FSAI's chief executive Alan Reilly said: "The levels in the feed were very high. The levels in the pork itself were in the region of about 80-200 times above the safe limits."
At this stage, no beef products have been recalled.
Why is dioxin a problem? Dioxins are highly toxic and carcinogenic (cause cancer). Dioxins are a by-product of industrial production in industries such as chemical and pesticide manufacture, paper bleaching. We have had food safety incidents in the past with this chemical. In 1999, dioxin was found in European animal feed which sparked a continent wide recall centred on Belgium. In 2004, there was another incident with milk in Belgium and the Netherlands and this was believed to have been due to animal feed that was contaminated with potato byproducts and earlier in 2008 with mozzarella cheese.
I have written before about having an effective product recall procedure in place and the interaction between food safety and brand equity. Food safety incidents, such as this one, require an effective, co-ordinated response in order to maintain customer confidence and to underpin the supply chain.
First posted on The Human Imprint
It has not been confirmed whether any of the pork products have been exported to the UK, although approxiamtely 60% of its production is exported worth £216 million per year. This problem comes after issues in the summer for the FSAI with Salmonella Agona contamination.
The BBC article stated that "The Irish minister for agriculture, Brendan Smith, said the problem was confined to 47 farms. He said: "This includes 38 beef farms. This is the total number of farms identified as having received possible contaminated animal feed. There is only one feed supplier involved." The FSAI's chief executive Alan Reilly said: "The levels in the feed were very high. The levels in the pork itself were in the region of about 80-200 times above the safe limits."
At this stage, no beef products have been recalled.
Why is dioxin a problem? Dioxins are highly toxic and carcinogenic (cause cancer). Dioxins are a by-product of industrial production in industries such as chemical and pesticide manufacture, paper bleaching. We have had food safety incidents in the past with this chemical. In 1999, dioxin was found in European animal feed which sparked a continent wide recall centred on Belgium. In 2004, there was another incident with milk in Belgium and the Netherlands and this was believed to have been due to animal feed that was contaminated with potato byproducts and earlier in 2008 with mozzarella cheese.
I have written before about having an effective product recall procedure in place and the interaction between food safety and brand equity. Food safety incidents, such as this one, require an effective, co-ordinated response in order to maintain customer confidence and to underpin the supply chain.
First posted on The Human Imprint
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