Irish Pork Recall another Track and Trace Debacle

StevenSimske — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:06:00 GMT

The latest food recall is a potential disaster for one of Ireland's biggest industries. On the second week of the Advent season (right when shopping for Christmas ham is hitting its stride), consumers have been asked to destroy all Irish pork products dating back to September for fear of dioxin contamination. Because of the nature of track and trace systems currently in place, this may amount to as much as

More information on the reasons for the recall are given at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7769893.stm

According to the Telegraph (a big UK news service), the pork industry is Ireland's fourth largest industry, with Ireland's 400 pig farms (providing work for 7,000 people in Ireland, including 1,200 on the farms) contributing about 400 million Euros (approximately 600 million dollars) to the Irish economy each year. The contamination of the pork was traced back to animal feed from one supplier used in more than 40 farms. Based on this, 90% of the pork destroyed will probably be wasted (i.e. no contamination), but since the dioxin concentration in the contaminated pork is 80-200 times the safe level for consumption, there is little room for error.

Also, about 90% of the pork products on sale were processed before September, and it is not obvious that or how this will be taken into account in the recall. Clearly, a substantial percentage of the pork products are contaminated, but much uncontaminated pork will be destroyed as well. A full-compliance, global produce track and trace system would not only reduce the waste, but would increase consumer confidence in the recall. Even with the wide swath of recall, will some contaminated products be missed?

It's bad enough that the pork producers suffer a devastating hit to their industry in an already treacherous economy. It's far worse to know that the damage may be much worse than it has to be.

-Steve

Security Printing and Imaging : Recall, dioxin contamination

Irish Pork Recall another Track and Trace Debacle