Tesco will still stock pork
TESCO was last night continuing to sell Irish pork in defiance of safety warnings from the UK’s official watchdog.
The supermarket chain said it had no plans to remove brands of Irish ham under its label despite the crisis over tainted supplies.
A spokesman insisted its ham was NOT affected by the scare in which feed given to pigs was tainted with dioxins — industrial contaminants — up to 200 times the safe level.
Stores across Britain removed products from ten farms in the Irish Republic after tests found some contained dioxins.
And shelves were cleared of pork items in Northern Ireland as it emerged 11 farms there received products from the South.
But the Tesco spokesman said: “We know where our ham comes from and can guarantee, 100 per cent, that it does not come from farms linked to the dioxin contamination.
“The Food Standards Agency has given us no advice to remove products from sale so we see no reason.”
But the FSA said it was advising consumers not to eat pork, or products where pork is the main ingredient, labelled as being from the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland. The advice extended to ham, sausages, bacon and salami.
Meanwhile Sainsbury’s and Asda both published lists of up to 100 items that were being taken off sale.
Last night the crisis was blamed on dodgy oil at an animal-feed factory.
A probe has centred on a food recycling plant — Millstream Power Recycling Limited, in Co Carlow. Investigators found oil used in a burner to heat food products being turned into animal feed was “inappropriate”.
The £500million Irish pork industry was plunged into chaos with thousands of jobs threatened and 100,000 pigs facing being destroyed.
Pork producers faced an £87million bill for the recall of products from around 30 countries.
Chronic long-term exposure to the dioxins can have serious health effects — including causing cancers.
The Sun
