100% pork recall due to failure to trace

THE failure of the Government’s national pig identification and tracing system has been blamed for the 100% withdrawal of Irish pork products over the weekend, which Fine Gael yesterday described as a “disproportionate response to a relatively contained problem”.

Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle questioned why, when only 6-7% of all Irish pig farms were implicated, could the system not identify the pigs from those farms.

“The fact is that 93-94% of all our pig farms are not implicated and affected with contaminated feed, yet there was a 100% withdrawal of pig products from shelves home and abroad with devastating consequences,” she said. “It is a disproportionate response to a relatively contained problem.”