我们胃生活在不安全之中

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我们生活的世界究竟有多安全？从我们吃进口中的食品安全程度就可以略见一二。近年来，关于食品安全的讨论不绝于耳。疯牛病、禽流感、毒牛奶、毒猪肉轮番轰炸；三聚氰胺、二恶英这类冷门陌生的化学名词也开始成为热点。俗话说，民以食为天。今天，我们就一起来关注一下这个“天”大的问题！

       First we had 1)BSE; then we had 2)Foot and Mouth followed by bird flu, and now there is another food scare—this time involving pigs. Anyone who has bought Irish bacons, sausages or other pork products over the past two months has been told to destroy them amid fears they could be poisoned.

       Ireland’s Food Safety Authority is recalling all pork products made in the country since 1st September because super high level of 3)dioxins have been found at 9 farms across Ireland; some are as much as 200 times the recommended amount. And it’s thought it 4)contaminated animal feed, which may be sold to more than 40 farms is to blame.

       The main message to consumers is if you have any Irish pork products in your fridges, get rid of them. But don’t panic. The risk here isn’t thought to be great. Dioxins are harmful if you are exposed to them over a long period of time, but as this 5)outbreak only started two months ago, the danger is very slight. Plus the UK gets most of its pork products from countries other than Ireland. So, the amount of affected meat on the market here is minimal.

       It’s a different story in Ireland though. Britain may not rely on Irish pork but the UK is still one of Ireland’s biggest customers. Not only that, all bacons, hams, sausages and even things like meat pizzas are having to be destroyed. And it could spell disaster for Ireland’s 400 pig farmers in the 6)run-up to Christmas. Their representatives insist this scare affects less than 10 percent of the products on the market at the moment; and that all meat produced from now on will be perfectly safe. Still, it’s likely to 7)dent consumer confidence on both sides of the Irish Sea at one of the most important times of year for the meat industry.

       先是疯牛病，然后是口蹄疫，紧跟着禽流感，现在又有另外一场食品危机——这一次，与猪有关。在过去两个月间购买了爱尔兰熏肉、香肠或其它猪肉制品的顾客已经被告知要彻底销毁这些猪肉制品，以防中毒。

       爱尔兰食品安全部门宣布招回9月1号以后本国生产的所有猪肉制品，因为在爱尔兰9个农场中查出猪肉内含有超高含量的二恶英（致癌物质），有的甚至达到了推荐含量的200倍。据悉，卖往超过40多家农场的动物饲料受到了污染有可能是这次事件的起因。

       对消费者来说，该事件的最主要信息是，如果你冰箱里还有爱尔兰猪肉制品，请马上扔掉它们。但是不必惊慌，这次事件并不会对人体构成很大的风险。二恶英需要在体内长期积聚才会散发毒性，由于这次事件仅仅发生在两个月前，它对人体的影响是相当轻微的。加上英国还从除爱尔兰之外的多个国家进口猪肉制品，因此英国市场上的问题猪肉数量并不多。

       但是在爱尔兰，情况却大不一样。英国或许可以不依赖于爱尔兰的猪肉进口，但英国确是爱尔兰猪肉制品市场的最大客户之一。不仅如此，所有熏肉、火腿、香肠，甚至像肉类比萨这些东西都必须销毁掉。对于正在为圣诞来临做准备的全爱尔兰400多位农场主来说，这可谓灾难。养猪场代表坚称到目前为止，这次事件受影响的猪肉不到市场的百分之十，而在这之后生产的肉制品将会百分百安全。然而，在这个全年最重要的时刻，爱尔兰海峡两岸的消费者对于肉制品产业的信心却依然低下。