TEN days after the mad cow scare started, Irish supermarkets have withdrawn more than 100 products containing British beef and beef derivatives, while some stores are still waiting for official guidance.
One of Ireland's largest supermarket chains, Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices, will put signs in its stores this morning advising customers that 22 product lines contain gelatine from British beef. Gelatine is used in confectionery, medicines, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. On Thursday Quinnsworth withdrew three Easter egg lines that contained sweets made with gelatine.
However, according to an Irish food expert, gelatine is safe. Dr James Sheridan, head of meat technology at Teagasc, the agriculture advisory body, said the bones and collagen (tendons and connecting tissue) that go into gelatine do not contain the proteins thought to cause BSE in cattle and Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in humans.
"Anything you say in relation to what is known about BSE is a qualified answer, because not enough is known," he said. But only meat products from the central nervous system of cattle are thought to carry a risk.
Superquinn has withdrawn around 48 products containing British beef. A couple of product lines have been replaced after suppliers re sourced the beef. A spokesman said those products with substantial amounts of gelatine, such as ice cream, contained pork gelatine, and had not been withdrawn.
Dunnes Stores has withdrawn all branded products containing British beef. It has not withdrawn products containing gelatine, but will monitor consumer reaction.
Super Valu says it does not stock British beef and a spokesman said it was "waiting for official guidance before we start taking things off shelves".
Both McDonalds and Burger King say they use Irish beef. McDonalds said that in the last week burger consumption had dropped by around 3 per cent.
It's a case of what is the least safe rather than what is dangerous, according to an Irish BSE expert, Dr Mark Rogers. A zoology lecturer at UCD, Dr Rogers says he does not believe any beef product is dangerous. If he had to say which products were "least safe" it would be those made with batch meat, such as meat pies and sausages, where the meat, comes from a number of animals and a number of parts of animals.
The use of material such as spinal cord, brain, spleen, tonsils and intestines in processed meat products has been banned in Britain since 1989. According to Dr Sheridan most of this material, including bovine liver, is not eaten in Ireland.
Yesterday Power Supermarkets, owners of Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices, withdrew a further 25 products, including tinned meats, beef soups and Oxo cubes. This brings the number of products withdrawn to 48.
Following the Minister for Agriculture's assertion that the problem would be ring fenced to Britain, An Bord Bia insists that all Irish beef is safe. On Thursday night Ireland joined the EU in banning the import of British beef and beef products.
