Health risks to people exposed to dioxins in Irish pork are not a cause for concern, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) reassured consumers tonight.
The body said its team of newly-appointed experts have assessed international and national data on short-term peak exposure to dioxins and PCBs and are assured the public will not suffer adverse health effects.
Officials revealed the scientific experts consulted widely with the European Food Safety Authority, the World Health Organisation and counterpart health risk assessors in the UK's Food Standards Agency.
Consultations have also been held with Belgian authorities regarding their continued population health monitoring since their dioxin incident in 1999 and data studied regarding the Seveso plant explosion in Italy in 1976.
FSAI's Alan Reilly said the scientific data and evidence does not support concerns on health effects to people exposed to dioxins at a high level over a short period of time.
"The dioxins in relation to the pork and bacon recall would have been concentrated primarily in the fat element of the product - pork is considered a healthy lean meat product and only the visible fat element of the product would have potentially contained any contamination," said Mr Reilly.
"Add this to the fact that only 10 per cent of the product is suspected as being affected on the market and this reduces the potential exposure.
"Putting all this into perspective with the evidence of long term exposure information we have, there is a low level risk of ill health - and that means for today, tomorrow or 10, 20 years from now. There is no scientific robust evidence to support any other viewpoint in our opinion."
The FSAI stated there is nothing that stands out as concerning in relation to data from populations where there was a high exposure over a short period of time to dioxins such as in the case of the Seveso plant explosion in Italy in 1976.
These people have been closely monitored for the last 30 years and the data here continues to show no significant evidence and there is nothing emerging in terms of adverse health implications.