Irish Pork Crisis of 2008 - European Food Safety Authority's Statement

European Food Safety Authority's Statement

In its statement issued on the 10 December 2008, The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considered that the levels of dioxin & dioxin like PCBs in Irish pork, before the contaminated pork was withdrawn, posed no risk to health. The EFSA calculated a number of different exposure scenarios, and they found that if a consumer ate Irish pork each day over the 90 day period, 10% of which was contaminated, the "increase in the Body burden of no concern for this single event". In the "very extreme case" of eating large amounts of 100% contaminated Irish pork every day over the 90 day period in question, the EFSA considered that "this unlikely scenario would reduce protection, but not necessarily lead to adverse health effects".

However the EFSA warns that its calculations are "Based on the very limited new data related to the current contamination incident of pork, which were made available to EFSA" and concludes its statement with the "EFSA based this statement on a limited data set". It also makes clear that its calculations assumed that exposure at these high levels only began in September 2008. If it is found that the animal feed had been contaminated prior to September 2008 then it will have to reevaluate its findings. The statement did not address the issue of contaminated beef.