Contaminated pork found in Estonia

Dec 08, 2008
TBT staff in cooperation with BNS

It is still uncertain how much tainted pork may have already been sold to consumers.

 TALLINN- Six batches of pork totaling 120 tons imported to Estonia from Ireland since Sept. 1 may be contaminated with a harmful dioxin substance dioxin which may cause cancer.

The Veterinary and Food Board will find out by the end of the week how much of the meat is still unused and how much of the products made from it still have not been sold. The handling of the meat and the products made from it will be stopped at once. .

The Irish government said on Dec. 6 it had ordered a recall of its locally produced pork products due to contamination with potentially cancer-causing dioxins. It said that laboratory tests of animal feed and pork fat samples confirmed the presence of dioxins, with toxins at 80-200 times the safe limits.

The Irish Association of Pork Processors said only 10 farms had been using the tainted feed, responsible for less than 10 percent of Irish pork production. They said the recall was a precautionary step.

Experts speaking to Reuters agreed that the risk was low.

"These compounds take a long time to accumulate in the body, so a relatively short period of exposure would have little impact on the total body burden," said Professor Alan Boobis, Toxicologist at Imperial College London.

"One would have to be exposed to high levels for a long period of time before there would be a health risk,"
Boobis added.

The European Commission has said they will pay more attention to the issue. Experts from the countries that may have received shipments of contaminated meat are scheduled to gather on Dec. 9 to discuss further action.

The chief of the Irish veterinary authority, Paddy Rogan, said on Dec. 7 that contaminated exports may have ended up in as many as 25 countries.

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