This weekend’s withdrawal of all Irish pork products from domestic and export markets is a catastrophe for the country’s agricultural sector, with immediate losses exceeding €100m and incalculable harm done to the wholesome reputation of food from the Emerald Isle. But the fast, clear and decisive actions taken by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland in response to the discovery of dioxin contamination in pigmeat will help to limit the damage.

The FSAI and the Dublin government have learnt the lessons of past food and drink contamination scares, in which governments and companies exacerbated the long-term damage through obfuscation, incomplete disclosure and inadequate product recalls. Melamine in Chinese milk powder is the latest example – and one of the gravest. Others include salmonella in British eggs and later in Cadbury’s chocolate, benzene in Perrier water and of course the BSE catastrophe.