WHO says cancer report not calling for people to give up meat

GENEVA - The World Health Organization stressed Thursday that an explosive report this week linking the consumption of processed meat to cancer was not calling for people to stop eating meat altogether.

The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) caused shockwaves Monday when it released a report analyzing 800 studies from around the world, concluding that processed meats such as sausages, ham, and hot dogs cause bowel cancer, and red meat "probably" does too.

Meat producers slammed the report, with Australia's agriculture minister calling it "a farce", and the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) saying IARC "tortured the data to ensure a specific outcome".

The United Nations agency cited research attributing about 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide to diets high in processed meat.

The agency acknowledged this was dwarfed by the estimated one million cancer deaths attributed to tobacco smoking, 600,000 to alcohol use, and more than 200,000 to air pollution every year.

But it warned its data did "not permit" the determination of a safe meat quota.

The WHO however stressed Thursday that IARC's review merely confirmed the UN health agency's 2002 diet and nutrition recommendations, urging people "to moderate consumption of preserved meat to reduce the risk of cancer."

"The latest IARC review does not ask people to stop eating processed meats but indicates that reducing consumption of these products can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer," WHO said in a statement.

It pointed out that it has a standing group of experts who regularly evaluate the links between diet and disease.

"Early next year they will meet to begin looking at the public health implications of the latest science and the place of processed meat and red meat within the context of an overall healthy diet," WHO said.

source: interaksyon.com

Horse lasagna, anyone? Europeans gag as food scandal spreads

LONDON - Britain's horsemeat lasagna food scare spread to several other European countries on Friday as officials said they suspected criminal activity was behind the growing scandal.

Swedish food giant Findus withdrew various frozen meals from France and Sweden, a day after withdrawing frozen beef lasagna from sale in Britain that was found to contain up to 100 perecent equine flesh.

The British supermarket chain Aldi meanwhile announced on Friday that two ready meal ranges contained similar quantities of the meat.

The meals were all produced in Luxembourg for French supplier Comigel and the company said the horsemeant orginated in a Romanian abbatoir.

Britain Prime Minister David Cameron called the scandal "completely unacceptable" and police said officers had met with Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) to discuss the matter.

British environment minister Owen Paterson said he would hold a "horsemeat summit" with the FSA and retailers to tackle the problem.

"I've got a nasty feeling it's actually a criminal conspiracy and that's why it's quite right for the FSA to engage the Metropolitan Police, who are working with other police forces across the mainland of Europe," Paterson told the BBC.

He said there was no risk to human health from the meals and said he would eat them himself.

On Thursday the FSA announced that 11 of 18 samples of Findus beef lasagna were found to contain between 60 and 100 percent horsemeat.

A Findus spokesman was quoted as telling the Guardian newspaper that it was told by Comigel about the horsemeat on Saturday but did not issue a product recall then, saying it was "a question of logistics."

Aldi announced on Friday that tests on its Today's Special brand of frozen beef lasagna and frozen spaghetti bolognese found they too contained between 30 percent and 100 percent horse meat.

The company said it felt "angry and let down" by Comigel.

Scotland Yard said it had "met with the Food Standards Agency at their request and will continue to liaise with them" but added that there was "no investigation at this time."

Comigel director Erich Lehagre told AFP the horsemeat originated in a Romanian abattoir and was provided to Comigel via a meat-processing company called Spanghero, based in southwestern France.

The meals were then produced in Luxembourg by a supplier called Tavola.

Speaking in Brussels after a European Union summit, Cameron described the situation as "very shocking".

"People will be very angry to find out they have been eating horse when they thought they were eating beef. This isn't really about food safety -- it's about effective food labelling," Cameron said.

The FSA said it had ordered further tests on the suspect lasagna for the veterinary drug phenylbutazone, which can cause a serious blood disorder to humans in rare cases.

All Findus frozen beef lasagnas have been recalled from Swedish stores while in France, the company is withdrawing three products -- lasagna, cottage pie and moussaka.

It is the latest horsemeat-related scare to his Europe after equine DNA was found two weeks ago in beefburgers in Britain and Ireland, countries where horsemeat consumption is generally taboo.

Millions of beefburgers have been removed from sale.

The consumption of horsemeat is more common in other parts of Europe including France, as well as in central Asia, China and Latin America.

Comigel said earlier that it had withdrawn all products from a meat supplier that had provided it with horsemeat instead of beef, but insisted that veterinary services in France and Luxembourg had said the horsemeat in question "does not raise any public health issue".

Comigel supplies frozen meals to supermarket chains and other clients in 16 countries, with Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia the main markets and Findus among the brands it has contracts with.

Luxembourg company Tavola, which makes the products for Comigel, imported the meat from France but it was "fraudulently labelled" beef, the country's director of veterinary services Felix Wildschutz told AFP.

France's anti-fraud watchdog said it was trying to trace the origin of the horsemeat fraud.

A spokesman for Findus UK told AFP that Comigel has supplied them with beef lasagna since 2011.

source: interaksyon.com

Meat Imports Decried

MANILA, Philippines — Local livestock producers in the country have called on President Benigno S. Aquino III to thresh out the problems affecting the livestock industry.

“The government’s policy of allowing massive importation of pork and meat, despite adequacy of supply must be stopped because it has actually deprived the government billions of pesos in customs and tariff duties because they pay only five percent tariff instead of 35 percent,” livestock producers said in a recent press conference.

They said that the policy of the Aquino administration is not only hurting the livestock industry, but may also pave the way for its eventual collapse because it effectively allows smuggling and importation of pork and chicken.

“Our message is not to penalize consumers but to point out that backyard raisers are going bankrupt due to unabated smuggling,” said Rosendo So, convenor of the Swine Development Council.

Among the proposals of the council is to give the Department of Agriculture (DA) a hand in regulating the importation of meat by requiring the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to automatically forward importers’ Inward Foreign Manifest (IFM) to allow the DA to inspect the importations against underdeclaration and misdeclarations by unscrupulous traders.

Hog raisers also urged that imported products first pass through the DA quarantine before the Bureau of Customs final evaluation.

Rep. Nicanor M. Briones, Agap Partly-list, Edwin G. Chen, president Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (Propork), Gregorio A. San Diego Jr., president, United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA), and Daniel P. Javellana Jr., chairman of National Federation of Hog Farmers, Inc. (NFHFI) aired the same sentiments as So.

The industry stakeholders said a five-day pork holiday has become necessary in the wake of government’s failure to address their appeal.

They also said that they welcome the decision of Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to relieve two officials, Efren Nuestro and Jane Bacayo as heads of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), respectively.

“This is a victory on our part, even as much still needs to be done,” said Chen.

In the same press conference, hog raisers lauded Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala’s decision to put on hold the implementation of Administrative Orders 5 and 6.

The two issuances provides for rules on the hygienic handling of newly-slaughtered meat and chilled, frozen and thawed meat in the markets.

“We call on the Aquino government to protect the hog and poultry industries by not only going after “unscrupulous importers” engaged in massive “technical smuggling,” but also by scrapping Administrative Orders No. 5 and 6, which deal on the hygienic handling of newly-slaughtered meat and handling of chilled, frozen and thawed meat in the markets,” the stakeholders said, in a statement.

They said that the two issuances ease out the local growers because they were adopted in consultation with importers of meat, but not with local hog raisers.

article source: mb.com.ph