The twenty-six year old Swedish tinned meat will be removed from the market because it is missing proper documentation, yet is suitable for consumption.

“The meat is not spoiled. It might not be tasty, but it is not unhealthy,” confirmed the head of the Central Sanitary Inspectorate, Jan Orgelbrand.

Samples of the meat were tested to determine whether the meat – conserved in the early 1980s in Sweden for Cold War stores – was healthy for human consumption. The meat does not present any physica dangers, “it is not chemically of microbiologically damaged,” claims Krzysztof Jazdzewski, temporary head of state veterinary services.

The problem, however, lies in the documentation of the goods. “The distributor did not declare itself to us as an industrial agent, but as a private person asking for the meat to be tested,” maintains Orgelbrand, adding that, had the Polish distributor followed the proper channels of industrial product testing, there would be no need to pull the meat off the market.

Inspectors have confiscated cans from 12 locations in Lesser Poland, Greater Poland and Pomerania. There is still no decision as to what will be done with the confiscated meat.

The tinned meat was packaged between 1982-1993 in Sweden to provide stores in case of war. After Sweden joined the European Union in 1995 and the political scene on the continent stabilized, the government decided to liquidate the vast reserve food stores. A Swedish distributor purchased the canned meat in 1999 and sold it to distributors in several countries, including Poland, the Baltic state, Ukraine, Germany, France and several countries in Asia and Africa. The affair was revealed by the TVN investigative reporting show Uwaga ('Attention'). (mmj)

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Early 80’s Swedish meat in Polish shops