Contaminated beef will be recalled

BEEF from the three farms found to have been contaminated will be taken off the shelves, the European Commission has decided.

But the commission is awaiting further testing on cattle on the 38 farms that used the dioxin feed before alerting national authorities and consumers.

To date, preliminary tests were carried out on herds from just 11 farms. On three of these, the levels of contamination exceeded the permitted amounts.

European Commission health spokeswoman Nina Papadoulaki said: “They were just above the accepted EU legal limits — we are not talking about high levels so there is no immediate risk to public health.”

The beef from the animals on the three affected farms, slaughtered since September 1, will be traced and will be withdrawn from the market.

Countries that may have imported this beef from Ireland will be alerted through the EU’s Rapid Alert System and will be expected to withdraw the products from the market. This will not occur immediately, however, as further laboratory results are still being awaited.

Tracing beef was much easier than tracking any other meat because of the labelling rules and each piece of beef could be traced from the farm to the consumer, she added.

Since the alert last weekend, meat from all 38 cattle farms, as well as from the affected pig farms, has been blocked.

Commission officials said they were searching for ways to help compensate farmers and processors suffering from the effects of the dioxin scare.

However, they cannot legally pay out money as a result of the debacle and are searching for other avenues, such as helping to pay for storage for product considered safe but for which there is no demand at present.

They repeated the Government is free to fully compensate affected farmers and to pay up to €200,000 to processors and retailers over three years, provided the situation is judged to be an exceptional occurrence — which it is likely to be.