-Caveat Lector-
After Mad Cow, Rotten Duck Shocks Gourmets
Updated 8:24 AM ET October 27, 2000
By Francois Raitberger
PARIS (Reuters) - After mad cows, it's dodgy duck -- another food scandal
hit French headlines Friday to shock a country proud of its gourmet
reputation.
The daily Le Parisien revealed that 23 tonnes of duck confit, a hearty
southwestern specialty of duck meat preserved in its own fat, were found to
be rotten in a routine inspection last year.
Almost half the shipment had already been packed into 6,000 tins labeled
"Top quality" and was set for delivery from the factory in the Dordogne
region, the proud home of such famous delicacies as foie gras and truffles.
The news -- which dominated radio and television headlines Friday -- came
as the Agriculture Ministry announced another seven cases of mad cow
disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), bringing to 78 the
total number of cases of the brain-wasting disease detected this year.
Their herds, 531 animals in all, were destroyed, it said.
Meanwhile, displaying another French tradition almost as entrenched as
good eating, trade unionists said they would demonstrate later Friday for
the release of a trader jailed for selling livestock from a herd where BSE
had been detected.
Three retail chains this week warned customers to return any beef they had
bought recently because some of their shipments had come from the same
herd in western France. Eating BSE-infected beef can trigger a version of
the similarly fatal Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in humans.
In Corsica, officials reported that over 260 sheep suffering from a nose and
throat inflammation known locally as "blue tongue disease" had died or
been slaughtered this week.
WEBBED FEET AND FEATHERS
Le Parisien published a facsimile of the Agriculture Ministry inspector's
report that said duck meat had been left standing for some time after its
slaughter before being canned.
Some duck legs were badly bruised while others still had their webbed feet
and feathers attached.
The scandal went unreported and the company went bankrupt eight months
ago, Le Parisien said. Financial police were investigating suspicions of tax
fraud, abuse of corporate funds and money laundering.
The state prosecutor investigating the case was due to hold a news
conference later in the day.
The scandal, which could shake other food companies in southwest
France, followed a series of scares including the presence of dioxin and
sewage sludge in animal feed.
Apart from the suspect beef recalled from the three supermarket chains,
about 10 makers of tripe and animal feed also received meat products
from the affected herd.
The Agriculture Ministry said efforts were under way to retrieve the
potentially contaminated meat products, but some might have already
wound up feeding man and beast.
A year ago the European Commission reported that some French
rendering plants were supplying animal feed makers with animal remains
contaminated by sewage sludge.
France's poultry and dairy industries lost at least 500 million French francs
($63 million) last year after it was discovered that Belgian animal feed
tainted with the toxic chemical dioxin had made its way to French farms.
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