The Irish Potato Famine in the mid-19th century is probably Ireland’s most well-known food-related disaster. But have you ever heard of the Irish Pork Crisis?
(And no, this has got nothing to do with the swine flu.)
A common assumption we make is that agricultural pollution is only capable of dealing harm to crops, humans, and the surrounding environment. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Livestock is a perfect example of a victim that we often overlook, and the culling of nearly 100,000 pigs in December 2008 has certainly driven the message home for Irish livestock farmers.
The Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Limited (2008) reports that on 6 December 2008, the Irish Government confirmed the presence of dioxins and non-dioxin polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in a number of animal feed samples and issued a national and international recall of all Irish pork and related products. Both PCBs and dioxins are chemically similar to each other, which makes them persistent organic pollutants that tend to be polyhalogenated and hence degrade at low rates.
PCBs also bioaccumulate in the fatty tissue of animals, which indicates the potential health risks the contaminated meat products may pose to humans. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (2008), tests performed showed that a number of pork products contained up to 200 times more dioxins than the recognised safety limit. Imagine what could have happened if these products had not been recalled in time!
The source of this contamination was later revealed to be industrial oil which was inappropriately used in a burner involved in the animal feed manufacturing process, in which the toxic fumes of the oil seeped into the feed (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008). On the other hand, The Irish Times (2008) reported that a portion of the contaminated feed had also been delivered to cattle farms in Northern Ireland, although they were deemed to pose minimal risk to the region’s beef supply.
In the context of environmental pollution, this dioxin food scare serves as a timely reminder of the importance of ensuring healthy and safe living conditions for livestock. Any attempt at cutting corners may eventually come back to bite us, and result in huge financial losses and negative publicity for the agricultural industry.
If you have any other interesting examples of food safety scandals to share, please feel free to leave a comment below!
See you soon,
Jialing
Reference List
British Broadcasting Corporation (2008) ‘Irish pork contamination probed’, BBC, 8 December. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7770476.stm (Accessed: 7 October 2020).
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2008) ‘Oil-tainted feed causes Irish pork crisis’, CBC, 9 December. Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/oil-tainted-feed-causes-irish-pork-crisis-1.719830 (Accessed: 7 October 2020).
Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Limited (2008) ‘Recall of all pork in public health alert’, Independent.ie, 6 December. Available at: https://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/irish-news/article1566236.ece (Accessed: 7 October 2020).
The Irish Times (2008) ‘Contaminated feed used on eight NI cattle farms’, The Irish Times, 9 December. Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/contaminated-feed-used-on-eight-ni-cattle-farms-1.832831?via=rel (Accessed: 10 October 2020).