Who deserves better protection – your child or your dog?

If  you eat pork, chicken, beef etc then there is a statutory legal limit to how much lead that food can contain – it is set at 10ppb (parts per billion).

If you eat game, such as Pheasant, Grey Partridge, Red Grouse, Rabbit etc, then no such legal level applies – even though in many cases it will have been shot with lead ammunition, and tiny fragments of lead will have contaminated the meat (as shown in the X-ray below) and can lead to lead levels being much higher than those that would be allowed for other meat products.

If you are a dog or a cat then the maximum lead level set by law for pet food is 1000 times higher than that for beef, pork, lamb, chicken for human consumption at 10 ppm (parts per million, not 10 ppb).

Let’s just summarise that:

Maximum lead level for chicken meat for human consumption 10ppb

Maximum lead level for beef for human consumption 10ppb

Maximum lead level for pork for human consumption 10ppb

Maximum lead level for lamb for human consumption 10ppb

Maximum lead level for pet food 10,000 ppb

Maximum lead level for game meat for vulnerable groups such as children – no upper limit.

 

Oh, and by the way,

Maximum lead level for infant formulae 2 ppb

 

I asked Defra Minister, Therese Coffey, about this situation (via my MP, Tom Pursglove) and she replied (letter dated 2 November) that Defra has ‘no plans to review this further’.

Your cat and dog are better protected by the Food Standards Agency and Defra than your children or yourself, and Defra and the FSA are happy about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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