The contamination of some Irish pork with carcinogenic dioxins has led to the recall and withdrawal of almost all pork products from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Both the UK Food Standards Agency and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland are advising the public not to consume any raw or cooked pork products (including sausages, bacon, ham, pate etc) produced on either side of the border in Ireland.
Reassurances over risk
Meanwhile, both authorities are offering reassurance that the risk to consumer health is very low, despite some of the affected pork containing 80 to 200 times the agreed safety limit. As the FSA’s chief scientist, Andrew Wadge, clearly sets out in his excellent blog, there is a sound scientific explanation to this apparent contradiction:
Dioxins accumulate gradually in the body over a period of about 30 years, after which the rate of dioxin intake will be about the same as the rate the body gets rid of it. The total amount in your body will then be about 2000 times higher than the average daily intake. For example, an intake of 10 times the TDI on a single day would result in a 0.5% increase in the total amount in your body, which would not be sufficient to have any effect.
It’s sensible to avoid the risk of consuming excessive quantities of dioxins, while not excessively worrying that high levels may have been consumed on occasion.
A concerning lack of resilience
More concerning is the fragility of the food system exposed by this food scare, like so many before.
The toxic dioxins are thought to originate from a single producer of pig feed and have been fed to pigs on just 10 farms. These 10 farms are big, representing around 10% of Irish pig production, but the problem has been amplified by extreme concentration in the food processing industry. Pigs from the affected farms were slaughtered at 4 abattoirs that handle 80% of Irish pork production. Suddenly, the vast majority of Irish pork is suspect.
The Irish pig industry is particularly concentrated, with over 90% of pigs reared in herds of over 1000 (The International Cost Competitiveness of the Irish Pig Industry, Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre) and just 12 abattoirs slaughtering pigs in the entire Republic of Ireland (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food list of approved establishments).
A local problem goes global
It gets worse. Ireland exports about half of its pigmeat and pork production, some of it for further processing overseas. The resulting products need not be labelled as Irish.
Indeed, they might be explicitly labelled as British. Although UK food law requires labelling not to be “false or misleading”, it’s accepted that goods may be deemed to have been produced in the country in which they last underwent a treatment or process resulting in a substantial change. The Foods Standards Agency recommends a more thorough and transparent approach, but it’s not clear to what extent this is followed.
Just about any pork product is suspect until assurances are given by the producer. In 2005, more bacon was produced in the UK from imported pigmeat than from UK production (An Analysis of Pork And Pork Products Imported Into The United Kingdom, BPEX 2006).
Identifying origin
It’s hard – often impossible – for consumers to be sure about where their food comes from, but even the retailers appear to find it difficult to identify exactly which products might be contaminated, as The Telegraph reports today:
Last night Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Aldi had still not produced lists of affected products. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer said they only use British pork in their products. Sainsbury’s published a list of withdrawn products on its website.
It’s a tragic consequence of the Irish contamination that many products from pigs raised in Britain and completely unaffected will fall under suspicion. It’s a terrifying thought that the spread and identification of contaminated food would be similar even if a more acute contaminant were at large.
Good labelling
Of course, some food is explicitly and clearly labelled so that consumers can be sure about where it’s from. This is true of many local brands (but careful attention should be paid to exactly what the label claims) and food sold under assurance schemes such as Assured Food Standards’ Red Tractor or the BPEX Quality Standard Marks for pork, bacon and ham.
The only meat with a legislative requirement for clear and detailed labelling of the country of origin is beef, under the Compulsory Beef Labelling Scheme brought in after the BSE crisis. It looks as though more sensible transparency in the food system will only come about in response to this later crisis. The opportunity to avert the worst consequences has already been missed.
