Feed Probe Widens as Tests Rock Beef Trade

The garda probe into the meat contamination debacle widened last night as the government battled to protect the 2 billion euro beef export industry.

Gardai were liaising with the PSNI in their investigation into the source of the oil that allegedly contaminated the feed at the recycling plant at the centre of the pork and beef scare.

The move came as the government announced that three beef herds tested positive for a toxic foodstuff.

But no beef products have been recalled after officials insisted there was no threat to public health — even though it emerged that the first group of tests on Irish beef farms found some animals were above legal limits for cancer-causing PCBs.

The cattle were fed the same recycled feed — contaminated with PCBs at a plant in Carlow — which has led to the recall of all pork products.

Dr Alan Reilly, deputy chief executive of the Food Safety Authority, said the potential levels of dioxins in animals in the three farms were far below those found in pigs and posed no threat to human health.

And last night, the North's health minister Michael McGimpsey said milk from a dairy farm there where contaminated feed had been given to cows had been "sent to a single purchaser in the Republic of Ireland".

The Department of Agriculture tested samples of produce from the farm and the results were negative, a Food Safety Authority spokeswoman said.

Source: The Independent