Rancid Swedish Cold War meat sold to Poland

Published: 25 Sep 09 08:32 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22286/20090925/

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Meat from Swedish stockpiles dating back to the Cold War has been sold to Poland to be served in restaurants, according to a report in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

The Swedish state phased out its stockpiles of tinned meat at the end of the 1990s.

The Swedish Board of Agriculture then sold 1.5 million kilograms of the meat, which dates back up to 27 years, to a Swedish trading company.

The meat was offloaded on the condition that it could only be sold as food outside of the European Union. Within the EU it could be classified only as animal feed.

The meat was since sold to Poland and has found its way onto the tables of unsuspecting diners in Polish restaurants.

The tinned meat's recommended durability was fixed at ten years.

Laboratory tests carried out on behalf of SvD and the Polish television programme Uwaga have found that the cans do not contain bacteria, and thereby meet EU regulations.

But further analysis at the agricultural college in Warsaw has shown that the tinned meats and minced meat mix are in varying states of rancid decay.

"When we opened the cans the freeze-dried meat smelt like fish. The fat in the cans had become rancid," Maria Walczyka, responsible for the testing, told SvD.

"By eating this meat you run the risk of being poisoned," she warned.

According to the agriculture board's conditions of sale, had the meat not been re-sold as food for humans or animal feed by March 2002 then it should have beeen destroyed.

But according to the newspaper these conditions were later changed and there remain stocks of the Cold War-era meat in storage in Gothenburg harbour waiting for export.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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09:37 September 25, 2009 by unt9
Ohh, they really need money.
09:56 September 25, 2009 by hjoian
im sure the swedish tax payers would have been happier for this 1.5 million KG of meat to have gone to Africa BEFORE it expired,rather than face this disgusting waste of a resource. I would like to know who benefitted from the sale of this?
10:50 September 25, 2009 by krzyz21
I never knew Swedes are SOO sick. If its not fit for EU, its not fit for ANY human, irrespective if they are European citizens or not. Don't tell me that half of the world is dying of hunger and they would eat this cold war meat happily.

BTW, can I swear here? Just read whatever curse words you can think of..
10:54 September 25, 2009 by bettan1
Maybe they thought if it worked for rotten Hering fish, then why not any other kind of meat. Interesting that they did'nt test it out on their own people.

There's a long history here of opting for materialism over principle. Just look at the sham profiteering that went on by siding with the Axis powers during WWII.

Oh I know, "Operation Barbarosa" was only a defending of the Scandinavian borders against an imagined future Soviet invasion.

Could really use some emoticons here!!! *lol*
23:38 September 25, 2009 by kalleboo
krzyz21: Actually the EU clause is a legal thing because selling cheap meat on the EU market would disturb the various agricultural subsidies, it's not a food quality thing.
08:08 September 27, 2009 by jimmyjames
Yes, yes I see perverted capitalism is alive and flourishing in the highly sophisticated, highly progressive Swedish political and business community. If there truly is such a thing a sin then it must be HIPOCRASY. Every single individual who participated in this conspiracy should be forced, at gunpoint if need be, to eat every single morsal of the rotten meat.....even if it takes them all the rest of their miserable, pathetic, money grubbing lives. I mean that with every fiber of my being.
18:55 September 27, 2009 by maksim
jimmyjames

Right On, Right on
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