Toxin levels off the charts in pig feed catastrophe
Scientists struggled to measure extent of contamination ahead of blanket pork recall
Sunday April 12 2009
THE contaminated pig feed that brought the Irish pork sector to its knees in December had toxin levels so great that scientists struggled to measure them.
A British laboratory that tested the feed warned that the poison levels in a sample of breadcrumbs were "so high as to often be beyond the measurement range of the instruments used".
The e-mail was sent to the Department of Agriculture on December 3, three days before the Government announced a total recall of all Irish pork.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show how officials and scientists struggled to keep abreast of the unfolding crisis.
They also disclose how by then, the plant's owner Robert Hogg had already stopped using the suspect oil thought to have caused the contamination because it caused on-going problems.
The discovery of cancer-causing dioxins detected in Irish pork was catastrophic for the pig sector, temporarily shutting down the industry and leaving the taxpayer with a €200m compensation bill.
A criminal investigation focussing on how the suspect oil was supplied to Mr Hogg is on-going.
The toxins were initially detected on November 28 and further investigations traced the contamination to Millstream Recyling.
E-mails between officials show how breadcrumb basis for his feed were sent for tests to a UK's Central Science Laboratory for tests on December 3. The results came back on December 9, with a warning from a scientist that toxin levels were off the scale: "Note the levels of contaminants in this sample were so high as to often be beyond the measurement range of the instruments used."
The next day, experts at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) debated the possible causes of the non-contamination.
In one e-mail, Alan Reilly, of the FSAI, discounted initial theories that plastic wrapping on stale bread was unlikely to be the cause.
"If this temperature was reached in the crumb drying process then the bread/crumb would be charred and not suitable for animal feed (burned toast!!)."
He suspected that commercial diesel fuel used to dry the breadcrumbs was the source of the contamination.
Later, at 6.26pm, an official, John Canny, e-mailed the results of his research to colleagues: "The oil is a blend of two fuels -- virgin fuel oil . . . and gas oil." He was told that "it was not suitable for contact with food or feed".
"It is not recommended for drying feed, eg. grains. While it could possibly be used where there is no direct contact with feed, the recommended fuels for feed drying are kerosene and gas oil."
Dermot Ryan, a senior official in the department, replied at 9.52 the following morning: "They switched over to (name is blanked out) on October 23, 2008, having had problems with the previous oil."
Irish consumers were oblivious at this stage that Irish pork which was sitting on supermarket shelves could be contaminated.
The Department of Agriculture issued a short statement on December 4 saying that is was investigating the source of contaminant in animal feed. But the statement received scant coverage.
The magnitude of the crisis only became clear on December 6, when the government suddenly announced a blanket recall of all Irish pork products a major agricultural crisis.
While confidence in Irish pork has largely been restored, the repercussions are still being felt in the industry.
Pig processors left out of pocket as a result of the recall have received only €45m of the €185m compensation package because of bureaucratic difficulties in getting the unwanted product back to Ireland.
Farmers are also awaiting compensation payments; all 17 herds have been destroyed -- including Robert Hogg's pigs; €8,600,000 of an estimated €20m has been paid to date.
- Maeve Sheehan
