There is no scientific evidence to suggest that eating chicken will cause anyone to become infected with the potentially fatal avian flu virus which has caused several deaths in the Far East, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said yesterday.
Its reassurance followed the imposition of a ban by the European Commission on poultry products from Thailand, where up to three people have contracted the virus.
Some 1,200 tonnes of chicken are imported into the Republic from Thailand every year, mostly in the form of frozen fillets. These are generally used in the catering industry, mainly for take-aways.
But Thai chicken also finds its way into the State in processed meals, such as those retailing in Tesco stores. A spokeswoman said: "All the fresh chicken and poultry we sell is Irish. The chicken in our ready meals comes from a variety of sources, including Thailand. We are following the advice issued by the FSAI." Marks & Spencer said it sourced its fresh chicken and chicken used in its prepared foods from "approved suppliers and farms within the UK and EU".
Superquinn said all its own-brand chicken was Irish and it was not aware if any of its processed foods contained Thai chicken. But its spokeswoman said it was not concerned because all the experts advised it was impossible to contract bird flu from eating poultry.
Dunnes Stores did not reply to a request for information on where it sourced its chicken. While regulations require that the country of origin of all chicken is clearly labelled, some Thai chicken, reprocessed in EU countries such as the Netherlands and in the Republic, is then relabelled as Dutch or Irish.
Mr Alan Reilly, acting chief executive of the FSAI, said the reason for the EU ban, given that consumers were not at risk from eating Thai chicken, was to protect flocks from potential infection.
"Thai poultry products could pose a problem to our flocks if, say for example, an infected raw chicken fillet was discarded, ended up on a landfill, was eaten by a bird that then went on to spread the virus to chicken flocks here.
"Consumers should not be concerned, as thorough cooking of chicken kills off harmful micro-organisms. The threat to public health from avian influenza through the consumption of cooked chicken is negligible," he added.
The director of the World Health Organisation's food safety programme, Mr Jorgen Schlundt, agreed. "There has been no case of somebody getting avian flu through eating," he said. Humans have only been known to catch the disease by being in close contact with live chickens.