Top medic calls for calm over salt food scare

photo - wikicommons/Tomasz Sienicki

Dr Jacek Postupolski from the National Institute of Public Health and National Institute of Hygiene has told Polish Radio that laboratory tests on the products are ongoing.
However, he believes that the results will not cause alarm.

“There is no information that would confirm heavy poisoning,” he claimed, stressing that there were “no reasons to panic.”

However, he affirmed that the matter should be “very carefully investigated.”

Five men have been charged in connection with selling industrial salt to food processing plants. They claim that the salt is edible.

It was originally believed that only meat products were affected, but the investigation is also taking in fish products and items from bakeries.

Dr Postupolski believes it will be difficult to determine the potential harm of the products, as the maximum level of salt in the products is 2 to 3 percent.

However, it has been confirmed that the industrial salt – typically used on icy roads – contains a sulphate concentration that is a hundred times over the permitted norm for edible products.

Dr Postupolski noted that sulphates occur naturally in nature, but can have a laxative effect when consumed.

Only when the tests are completed will the products themselves – which are believed to have been sold in supermarkets across Poland – be dealt with by authorities.

The Chief Regional Sanitary Inspector in Poznan, western Poland, has asked public prosecutors for a list of all the companies that purchased the salt.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Donald Tusk told Minister of Agriculture Marek Sawicki on Monday to prepare “as comprehensive a study as is possible - if not today, then over the next few days.” (nh/pg)

Source: IAR, PAP