Europe and the bird flu threat -

What terrible thing does a person have to do before he/she will be insulted publicly?

Geoffrey Podger, Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma/Italy, just found out!

As an answer to concerned questions, EFSA had recommended the precautionary measure of cooking eggs and chicken meat well and not to eat raw eggs.

In the tense period of a possible pandemic, such a banal and well-known fact seems reason enough for some politicans, experts with differing agendas and managers of the poultry industry to come down on the the Authority's Executive Director like a ton of ..eggs.

The statement that in "the European Union, the presence of H5N1 has not been detected in commercial poultry to date. As precautionary advice and in order to avoid known risks of food poisoning from Salmonella and other organisms, EFSA reconfirms longstanding recommendations that poultry meat and eggs be thoroughly cooked. Whilst it is unlikely that H5N1 could be passed onto humans by raw meat or eggs, cooking food properly would inactivate the virus and eliminate this potential risk" led to the public bashing of EFSA in general and Mr. Podger in particular.

The fact of the matter is that EFSA has been created to provide to European consumers guidelines, which are scientific - and neutral! In the present context it is absolutely essential that this 'neutrality' includes also the total independence from a ?15bn (£10bn) poultry industry.

However, regardless of what EFSA recommends and the chicken-barons don't want to hear - it is obvious that European consumers are careful: Chicken consumption in Italy fell 40 per cent last month, and the situation in other countries is similar. In France the producers of foie gras fear that the demand for diseased poultry liver, which is normal during the Christmas period, will run off their order books like water off a duck's back.

EFSA has done what it had to do and consumers are free to decide what they want to do.

Source: EVANA
Author: Renato Pichler

Link: EFSA provides update on avian influenza and food safety
Link: EU bird flu alert on eating raw eggs
Link: EU: EFSA advises cooking eggs to kill bird flu virus


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