Bid to allay fears over additives in poultry meat

IRELAND - Food safety bosses moved to reassure Irish consumers today after fears were raised over feed additives found in poultry meat.

Dr John O’Brien, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), said consumers should not be worried as the levels of nicarbazin detected were low and do not pose a health risk.

“In addition, the figures reported relate to 2004 and the number of positive samples is declining year on year,” he said.

“The FSAI and the Department of Agriculture and Food thoroughly investigated these residue notifications in 2004 and were satisfied that a specific risk to consumers of poultry meat did not arise from these incidences.”

Food safety bosses said nicarbazin was an authorised feed additive for poultry used to maintain good health in flocks.

The authorities said the detection of nicarbazin residues reported by Teagasc’s National Food Residue Database (NFRD) do not pose a serious risk to consumer health.

The FSAI said it did not believe there was a risk as nicarbazin was a low toxicity additive, the levels found in chicken liver were low combined with the fact chicken liver is not eaten in large quantities.

Dr O’Brien said the additive was not a banned drug.

Source: Ireland Online