Monday 8 December 2008

France Is So Different To the UK Sometimes!

This has been really brought home to me today. Over the last couple of days I’ve been reading about the dioxin contamination in Irish pork at the moment, due to contaminated feed. It’s been the main story in the newspapers, the TV and the on-line news. I would think that unless you lived the life of a hermit it would be impossible to live in the UK and not know about it.

Today I went to spend my ‘loyalty’ money at the other supermarket I frequent and was in a lovely relaxed mood as I wandered through the arcade. So laid back that I actually stopped to read the notices that were pinned on one side of a board at the entrance to the supermarket; the other side was advertising a spectacular that you could book through the supermarket.

I’m glad I did and what I read, and it was only in normal size print (10 or 12 point) on an A4 sheet, stopped me in my tracks. It was a notice advising people that a product, strong chorizo, that they sold could possibly harbour listeria.

Now as you probably realise it wasn’t just that a product could contain listeria that stopped me in my tracks but that the product had been on sale in August and was a product I was pretty sure I’d purchased and my son G had eaten, (rather a lot in one go too). He had also been rather violently ill afterwards and we’d put it down to it being too much spicy stuff.

I still had the remains of the packet in the refrigerator so I took down the details and hurried back to check. It was basically the same product but a different batch number. That would normally have reassured me but I had a small amount of it a little while back and I too have been feeling ill for a while. I’d put my stomach upset down to the cough medicine I was taking but despite not taking the medicine for a week I’ve still not recovered from the stomach upset.

A bit too much of a coincidence I think but the difference in reporting a possible health risk couldn’t be more marked; full scale coverage so no-one can miss it or an insignificant piece of paper that was pined above my head height, (OK I am a bit vertically challenged) and I just happened to spot as I had time and walked past the relevant side of the notice board.

9 comments:

Barbara Martin said...

You should write a letter to the health department to advise of your findings. Those circumstances are too close for comfort for me. Also, check with your family doctor about your suspicions. Take care.

dND said...

Hi Barbara,

I suspect I'd never get through the French bureaucracy :-D and sadly I still have no health cover. So it's been a good trawl through the Internet through trusted sites and I should be fine in a few days. I'm not in a high risk category so treatment is deemed unnecessary.

I've eaten unpasteurised and blue cheeses most of my life so I've probably gained some protection from that as my symptoms have been relatively mild. I should now have even better immunisation I hope :-D

Anonymous said...

Good isn't it...not only has my cracker-tracker seriously taken another dive (Thank heavens I'm with HSBC) but I nipped along to Sainsbury's after work, and guess what? I bought loads of pork fillet at fantastically reduced prices....ok so I'm just getting over the BSE...or was it the CJD, (the brains not quite what it used to be..lol)
Sis xxx
PS you will look after, me wont you!

dND said...

I thought you were supposed to be looking after me! What a pair we're going to be... doesn't really bare thinking about does it? Dx

Anonymous said...

Sounds just like France to me. Hope you survived, and lived to tell the tale.

dND said...

Hi there ffs

Thankfully I've never shied away from unpasturised or soft cheeses so while I did feel under the weather for a couple of days and had the flu type symptoms it's gone as fast as it arrived. So I feel I had some immunisation somewhere along the line.

Now if I could just get the never-ending string of colds to go away I'd be laughing

Anonymous said...

apparently there are 200 cold viruses. Everytime you get a cold you become immune to that virus. the problem is that when your defences are weakened you become more prone to further colds (hence one after the other). So start ticking the boxes and when you've ticked them all.....no more colds!!!!
Sis XX

Anonymous said...

That is an aweful story about you and your son's food sickness. It is scarey these days eh. I can't stand that when I go out to restaurants I'm now skeptical of the food. Obviously, I experience this with any food that I don't grow myself, but these days that is precious little (thank goodness). But, the dioxin scare in the pork related to their feed is frightening. I must rely on outside feed for my animals (though increasingly am able to provide for the dog with chicken, fish, duck and turkey--yes, she eats better than many humans). But for the herbevioures among us, I'm utterly reliant on outside feed and I don't have access to organic (living as remotely as I do, it simply isn't practical). So, I console myself that the birds forage all day, but obviously in winter this is not happening much.

what is wrong with our world that there are so many dangers out there? Isn't this what all the blasted gov't regs are for, to protect us? (I know, don't laugh to hard at my hopeful ideals).

HDR

VP said...

Oh how awful. I hope you're feeling better now.

Just popped over to wish you a Happy Christmas and New Year!