EU tells UK to explain its tainted pig-feed problem

EU tells UK to explain its tainted pig-feed problem

Britain has until the end of Tuesday to tell EU food safety regulators what it will do about pork coming from Northern Irish farms that bought tainted animal feed from Ireland, an EU official said.

Animal feed contaminated with dioxins at levels about 100 times the maximum permitted in the European Union was delivered to 10 pig farms and 38 cattle farms - but no dairy farms - in Ireland and to nine pig farms across the border in the British province of Northern Ireland.

Irish authorities have ordered the food industry to recall all domestically produced pork products from shops, restaurants and plants because of the risk of dioxins in food. They have also said they will pull contaminated cows from the food chain.

British authorities have not taken any action so far.

"It's a UK decision (to take action)," an official at the European Commission said, but added that Brussels had the power to enforce export and trade restrictions if its food safety experts became concerned about any potential health risk.

"They have to provide detailed information by today at the latest as regards the UK government's actions for pigs and pigmeat products originating from nine affected farms in Northern Ireland," the official said.

Pork and processed products containing meat from the farms that received the tainted feed were shipped to 12 European Union countries and nine non-EU countries and territories. The Commission has praised Ireland for acting so swiftly, saying no more action was required at the moment.

Dioxins are by-products generated mainly through incineration by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. They can be absorbed through the skin or ingested through food, and long-term exposure to some forms can cause cancer.

The obvious answer to the EU is to go forth and multiply. The risk to human health from dioxins is through prolonged exposure to high levels of dioxins over a long period of time. The risk to human health from the use of this contaminated feed is effectively zero. The Irish government issued the recall because the level of dioxins in the products made it illegal, not because it posed a risk to human health.

Let's just take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The treacherous British government has ratified the EU constitution Lisbon Treaty and the Irish government has not. It is being reported that the EU has convinced the Irish government to hold another referendum on the EU EU constitution Lisbon Treaty seeing as how they came up with the wrong answer last time. Slapping a massive fine on the Republic of Ireland for allowing contaminated pork products to enter the food chain wouldn't help convince the Irish people that the EU is a good thing but they have nothing to lose by taking action against the UK government because we don't need to be convinced - we don't get a say in our relationship with the EU, the europhile traitors in government are signed up to the federalist agenda whether we want it or not.