traceability and the pork recall

c-note · 06-12-2008 10:50PM #1

As you've heard: ALL pig meat products are being recalled beacause of toxic contamination with pcb.
according to the news only 10% of products, originating from 47 farms are affected.
sooo my question is
what is the point of having traceability if you cant trace the meat from theese farms?

i would have thought that they could look along the distribution lines, say where the meat had gone and recall that!!

i'd be very interested to hear how this toxic chemical which hasnt been manufactured since 1979 finds its way into irish pork?

also what is the point of testing for food saftey if results like this arnt know for 3-4 months at which stage its about 3-4 months too late!.

this is a huge blow for confidence in the meat industry.
when we shook our heads in disbelief at milk in china being contaminated with melamine formaldehyde, little did we know that our own home grown produce couldnt claim to be any better at all whether intentionally contaminated or not.

nilhg · 06-12-2008 10:58PM

c-note wrote: »

As you've heard: ALL pig meat products are being recalled beacause of toxic contamination with pcb.
according to the news only 10% of products, originating from 47 farms are affected.
sooo my question is
what is the point of having traceability if you cant trace the meat from theese farms?

i would have thought that they could look along the distribution lines, say where the meat had gone and recall that!!

i'd be very interested to hear how this toxic chemical which hasnt been manufactured since 1979 finds its way into irish pork?

also what is the point of testing for food saftey if results like this arnt know for 3-4 months at which stage its about 3-4 months too late!.

this is a huge blow for confidence in the meat industry.
when we shook our heads in disbelief at milk in china being contaminated with melamine formaldehyde, little did we know that our own home grown produce couldnt claim to be any better at all whether intentionally contaminated or not.

I think they probably know well where the produce of these farms has gone but for feel PR reasons it's better to recall it all.

You are right though its a disaster for our industry, I supply wheat and barley to a miller heavily involved in the Pig industry, and we have to jump through loads of hoops to have our produce accepted, so I have to say I'm well p****d off to hear that some cowboy has dumped us in the s**t, he diserves all thats coming to him.

old boy · 06-12-2008 11:13PM

how come we are not told what not to GET RID off there is many producers not guilty,

c-note · 07-12-2008 01:08AM

yah its shambolic, i think some heads should roll,
i'm involved in farming aswell and know how high the standards are and the lengths farmers have to go to to comply with regulations which are for the benefit of the farmers the livestock and the consumers.

whoever is responsible for this has to made fully accountable to the public for placing them in harms way, and to the farmers for undermining the entire meat industry. i hope they get to the bottom of this soon.

nilhg · 07-12-2008 01:46AM

old boy wrote: »

how come we are not told what not to GET RID off there is many producers not guilty,

As far as I can see none of the direct producers are guilty, they bought feed for their stock in good faith. Too early to say for certain though.

c-note wrote: »

yah its shambolic, i think some heads should roll,
i'm involved in farming aswell and know how high the standards are and the lengths farmers have to go to to comply with regulations which are for the benefit of the farmers the livestock and the consumers.

whoever is responsible for this has to made fully accountable to the public for placing them in harms way, and to the farmers for undermining the entire meat industry. i hope they get to the bottom of this soon.

+1,

The Damage is done though.

I wonder will FF try to pass the buck..........................................

grizzly · 07-12-2008 02:17AM

This is very bad news. Food scares of this magnitude will be remembered internationally for years to come and cripple the industry.

lostexpectation · 07-12-2008 02:25AM

still they should be able to trace the meat/feed with the week they've known. they all said something about it being processed with other meat.?

jen_23 · 07-12-2008 11:09AM

i'd be very interested to hear how this toxic chemical which hasnt been manufactured since 1979 finds its way into irish pork?

PCBs are either oily liquids or solids that are colorless to light. Some PCBs can exist as a vapor in air. PCBs have no known smell or taste.
PCBs have been used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment because they don’t burn easily and are good insulators.

What happens to PCBs when they enter the environment?

PCBs entered air, water and soil during their manufacture, use and disposal; from accidental spills and leaks during their transport; and from leaks or fires in products containing PCBs. PCBs can still be released to the environment from hazardous waste sites; illegal or improper disposal of industrial wastes and consumer products; leaks from old electrical transformers containing PCBs; and burning of some wastes in incinerators. PCBs do not readily break down in the environment and thus may remain there for very long periods of time. PCBs can travel long distances in the air and be deposited in areas far away from where they were released.

In water, a small amount of PCBs may remain dissolved, but most stick to organic particles and bottom sediments. PCBs also bind strongly to soil. PCBs are taken up by small organisms and fish and they are also taken up by other animals that eat these aquatic animals as food. PCBs accumulate in fish and marine mammals, reaching levels that may be many thousands of times higher than in water.

I think it will be very difficult to determine how exactly the meat got contaminated.

gas_ticket · 07-12-2008 03:07PM

I hear that the Food Minister Trevor Sargent was on the radio saying that it was "non food-grade" oil that got into the meal factory, that caused the problem.

Where exactly did the oil come from? Disposal of contaminated oil is mind-numbingly expensive. Is this another case where a rogue waste disposal company was paid a fortune to do proper disposal abroad, but dumped the poison-laden cargo into oil for another purpose?

Also, they say that there's nothing to worry about. Then WHY THE HELL ARE WE DUMPING THE MEAT???? Either it is safe or it is not safe. In fact, there's no safe level of dioxins, anyway. They accumulate in fat, and stay for years.

On the radio, the "nothing to worry about" idea seems to mean that you'd have to eat a lot of the pork to poison yourself on the spot.

But what about a small amount of PCBs from pork mixing with the rest of the dioxins in your body from incineration?

Did you know that the Mater Private Hospital used to burn PVC-laden hospital waste on their own grounds in the centre of Dublin until the mid 1990s at least? Other hospitals did likewise, and a similar incinerator was working in Ringsend for years and years. So, what about adding the Pork PCBs to the stuff those incinerators would have churned out?

Those incinerators regularly had big black toxic clouds of smoke. I know, because I used to see them.

John Gormley used to protest about them at the time.

No wonder he doesn't want the incinerator.

charliecon · 08-12-2008 12:45AM

This whole situation is absolutely sickening , why is animal feed not tested before it leaves the millers yards ? It is incredible that the department wait to sample the end product in the meat factory ,just before it reaches the consumer , to test its safety. Surely at this stage the margin for error is too high .
In all of this mess yet again it will be the farmer who will suffer as they have thousands of pigs ready to slaughter for the Christmas market , will these also be dumped and will those responsible for contaminating the feedstuff be made to compensate the owners of these animals? It will certainly be interesting to see but my money is on an official investigation (which will report in about 10 years time :rolleyes:) concluding that " the pcbs came from an unknown source" and that not one person will ever be held accountable.

tred · 08-12-2008 03:02PM

charliecon wrote: »

This whole situation is absolutely sickening , why is animal feed not tested before it leaves the millers yards ? It is incredible that the department wait to sample the end product in the meat factory ,just before it reaches the consumer , to test its safety. Surely at this stage the margin for error is too high .
In all of this mess yet again it will be the farmer who will suffer as they have thousands of pigs ready to slaughter for the Christmas market , will these also be dumped and will those responsible for contaminating the feedstuff be made to compensate the owners of these animals? It will certainly be interesting to see but my money is on an official investigation (which will report in about 10 years time :rolleyes:) concluding that " the pcbs came from an unknown source" and that not one person will ever be held accountable.

One solution here, is to close these guys down. A lesson to anyone else. There saying in the UK..that it was loaves of mouldy bread being dumped into the meal wiht the packets still on. Today there saying its oil from a machine. If its oil from a machine that was leaking and they new it was leaking somewhere , as they would be topping it up. Arrests should be made. over 800 jobs at risk today in one company alone. its going to take a year to recover..and...in the middle of a recession.

traceability and the pork recall

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