DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland has issued an international warning for people not to consume Irish-produced pork products because they could contain dangerous levels of contaminants.
The government's departments of health and agriculture on Saturday jointly called for the recall or destruction of all Irish pork produced since Sept. 1.
The call comes after inspectors discovered potentially dangerous dioxins in pigs and pig feed at 80 to 200 times the safety limit.
Dioxins, which are naturally occurring and can enter an animal's system through its food or environment, accumulate in the pig's fat.
They have been linked to an increased risk of cancer in humans if ingested in sufficient volume and over a long enough period of time.
The government's warning that Irish pork may have been tainted for months threatens an industry worth more than US$600 million annually in a country of 4.2 million people.
In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Brian Cowen said officials from the Agriculture Department and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland were still investigating "the extent of the contamination and to identify the processors and products involved."
The order dealt the biggest blow to Irish agriculture since the foot-and-mouth disease threat of 2001. At that time, Ireland successfully prevented the spread of the disease from neighbouring Britain - but still faced months of lost export business for its beef because of foreign fears.
The government asked grocery stores, pubs and restaurants in Ireland to ship back all Irish pork products to their manufacturers as part of the investigation and asked the public "as a precautionary measure not to consume Irish pork and bacon products at this time."
Ireland's farms produce more than three million pigs a year, nearly half of which are consumed within the Republic of Ireland.
But Irish pork also is heavily exported to neighbouring Northern Ireland and Britain - and appears in grocery stores and processed meats through much of Europe and Asia.
Ireland's major international competitors for pork-product exports are Brazil, the United States and Canada.
