In the central science laboratory in York last Saturday, scientist Martin Rose stared in disbelief at his dioxin detector. He had injected a sample of Irish animal feed into the machine, and the results had gone off the scale. The level of toxic contamination was at least 5,000 times the legal limit.

Rose knew there was some urgency about the analysis. The Irish authorities had asked the laboratory team to work over the weekend to get test results in a few days; normally it would take four weeks.

At 3.40pm on Saturday last, Alan Reilly, deputy chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), was given the bad news. He called Brian Cowen and outlined the grim scenario. While only 8% of Irish pork was contaminated, it could not be isolated quickly.

Every minute that the taoiseach dallied, consumers were eating dioxin-laden Irish meat. How much damage that might be doing to people’s health was not known. Nevertheless, Cowen made his decision almost immediately. Aware of the damage it would do to Ireland’s pork industry, he ordered a full recall of all pork products from September 1.

Next day, the FSAI was inundated with calls from people who had just eaten bacon for breakfast. Were they going to get cancer? Meanwhile, butchers and retailers cleared their shelves of pork, leaving ominously empty spaces. Thousands of workers in the pig industry were laid off.

Within 12 hours, international media headlines blared about high levels of cancer-causing toxins being discovered in Irish pork. The country’s reputation for high standards in food production was roasted.

By Monday, word started to emerge that the contaminated pork would not really cause any harm to consumers after all. By Tuesday, people were wondering why there had been such a fuss. By Wednesday, everybody who had been adversely affected by the crisis was angry at what was increasingly being perceived as an over-reaction by Cowen.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the cash-strapped government was forced to make a €180m compensation deal with the Irish Association of Pigmeat Processors. “The number one priority was to get pork back on the shelves,” said one Department of Agriculture official. “Now [the government] has to work out where they’re going to get the money, and how they’re going to make it stretch.”

By Friday morning, pork was back on the shelves. Workers were back in the pig plants. But with an unquantifiable amount of damage done to Ireland’s food export industry, serious questions remained. In his rush to action, did Cowen unnecessarily sacrifice Ireland’s reputation for quality food, and pay €200m for his pains? Or did he display admirable transparency and leadership while saving the future of the Irish export industry?

“I ACTUALLY can’t believe this decision is even being questioned,” said the FSAI’s Reilly. “I’m astonished by the people saying that we shouldn’t have ordered a recall. If we had left that meat on the shelves, leaving people to eat contaminated product, we would have been lambasted for being irresponsible, and in all probability we’d be out of our jobs.

“If we were interested in protecting the industry, we’d have kept quiet, but our number one priority is consumer health. Also, it is actually illegal to have contaminated products on the shelves. From that point of view alone, we had to act.”

Cowen’s decision was largely commended by other EU countries, the European commission and public health experts. Doug Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University, said off-the-scale readings from the feed justified the action.

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