The Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran, Ministry of Health and Iran’s Veterinarian Organization came to an agreement after three and a half years of disputes over the issue, the chairman of board of directors at Tehran’s Union of Producers of Egg-Laying Chicken said.

“Based on the agreement, the slaughtering of chickens whose paste is to be used is done under the supervision of Iran’s Veterinarian Organization and on condition that their bones are completely separated,” Nasser Nabipour was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

Vahid Marandi Moqaddam with the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran told IRNA that the use of chicken paste is permitted with the proviso that only chickens approved by IVO be used, the paste be produced in sausage factories, not be transferred between production units, unauthorized tissues such as intestines and liver be dumped, and be produced and used on the same day.

“Producers are allowed to use 40-60 per cent chicken paste in sausages. They must inform consumers of the products in which chicken paste were used by labeling them with yellow covers saying ‘Sausage Made with Chicken Paste’,” he said.

Financial Tribune reports that the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran will soon announce the date of implementing the new rules.

The use of chicken paste in meat products has been a controversial issue in Iran and the subject of heated debate for long.

ISIRI banned the use of chicken paste in sausage production on 23 July 2011, due to the use of chicken waste in the paste, including skin and bone.

Egg Exports Slowly Resume as Bird Flu Contained

Meanwhile, on the egg front, Financial Tribune reports that the secretary-general of Iran’s Association of Producers of Egg-Laying Hen said about 1,500 tons of eggs have been exported to Afghanistan since 2 April.

“Iraq too lifted the ban on egg imports from Iran 10 days ago, yet the high price of Iranian eggs compared with those of its rivals is an impediment to growth in exports,” Farzad Talakesh was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

The official noted that last week an egg shipment weighing around 20 tons was exported to Qatar. Due to an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus in Iranian farms, exports of eggs and chicken had come to a halt as of last November.

Consequently, Iraq and Afghanistan banned the imports of Iranian eggs and chicken early December.

Talakesh had previously said that Iran’s egg exports could not exceed 50,000 tons in the current Iranian year that started on 21 March, as the country lost a huge number of chickens due to the outbreak and its export markets.

H5N8 was first detected in Iran in late November 2016.

“In March 2017, it was reported that the avian influenza had spread across 24 Iranian provinces leading to the culling of some 12 million chicken,” Nasser Nabipour, the head of the board of directors at Tehran’s Union of Producers of Egg-Laying Chicken, said.

The H5N8 strain of bird flu is deadly for poultry, but according to World Health Organization, although human infection with the virus cannot be excluded, the likelihood is low. After months of tough struggle, Nabipour said on May 6 that Iran Veterinary Organization has informed the World Organization for Animal Health that the country has rid itself of this virus.

Iran exported 40,000 tons of eggs last year, some 55,000 tons less compared to the previous year.