Two hunters handle a wild boar, in an archive image.Europa Press News (Europa Press via Getty Images)
In recent months, the authorities of Italy and Portugal have rejected consignments of products containing wild boar game meat from Spain due to the high levels of lead detected.
The amount of this heavy metal, from the ammunition used to shoot down the animals, in one case exceeded the maximum permitted levels by more than 100 times, according to the European Union's warning systems.
The Spanish Food Safety Agency (AESAN) has opened investigations into this case and another recent one.
“Contamination of game meat by lead in ammunition is an old problem that can have significant health risks for consumers.
Lead is a heavy metal that accumulates in tissues and affects the neurodevelopment of children.
In adults, it also causes cardiovascular and kidney problems, among others.
As its effect is cumulative, it can be argued that occasional consumption may not pose a great risk.
But we must keep in mind that it adds to the other sources of exposure we have to lead, such as environmental sources.
The risk may be greater for the hunters themselves and their families, habitual consumers,” explains Antonio Juan García Fernández, professor of Toxicology at the University of Murcia.
This expert is co-author of a study titled
Toxic Risks of Lead Ammunition and its Alternatives in Hunting Activity
,
published in 2019, in which he explains that “any other type of lead ammunition fragments after the impact of the projectile, resulting in a dispersion of lead in the tissues of the killed animal.”
The document warns of some risks: “There is a belief that these fragments can be removed and thus discarded from the carcass of the killed animal.
However, this would only be valid for relatively large fragments that can be detected.
But the reality is different, since it has been shown that lead fragments are dispersed in the form of small microscopic particles (sometimes nanoparticles) throughout the tissues;
"Its complete removal from the carcass is not possible."
The European Union's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) records a first incident reported on November 8 by the Portuguese authorities with “boar meat fillets” in which levels were detected. greater than 11 milligrams of lead per kilo of product.
This, according to the alert itself, exceeds “the maximum authorized levels” by 110 times, which are 0.10 milligrams per kilo.
The second case was notified by Italy to the RASFF on December 5.
In this case, the affected product was “wild boar meat trimmings” and the levels found tripled the authorized maximums.
The Spanish Food Safety Agency has opened investigations after receiving the notifications, which have ended in recent weeks.
In a written response to EL PAÍS, this organization confirms that the notifications received from Italy and Portugal “were transferred to the competent authorities of the autonomous community [which has not been made public] where the establishment from which the meat came is located so that “They made sure that all meat from the same batch was removed from the market.”
Investigations confirmed that the lead that caused the contamination came from the ammunition used during the hunt for the affected wild boars, according to AESAN.
The Interprofessional Game Meat Association (Asiccaza) defends the safety of its products.
“Metal detectors are used in the carcass treatment rooms and all controls are carried out to ensure that the products produced are of excellent quality,” explains a spokesperson.
Without going into more details of the specific case, the sector's employers affirm that “lead contamination can occur naturally due to the environmental exposure of animals in places where, for example, there are old mines or deposits of this metal.
But this affects the entire ecosystem, not just the wild boars.”
Spain is a major producer of game meat, although it is not a large consumer and exports 90% of the animals.
According to the latest data available on the Asicazza website, in the 2017-18 season, almost 650,000 pieces of large game were killed in Spain, with a market value of their meat of 57.1 million euros, and wild boars being (355,000 pieces) and deer (182,000) the most hunted.
According to a study commissioned by the association, three out of four Spaniards never eat game meat.
19.6% do it once a month and 4.6% do it weekly.
A decade ago, AESAN published a report from its scientific committee on “the risk associated with the presence of lead in wild game meat in Spain.”
After reviewing all the publications and evidence on the problem, the committee concluded that “the pieces of wild game analyzed in Spain show an average lead content higher than the maximum limits established in the EU for meat and offal in general.”
In this sense, however, it must be taken into account that there are no specific limits for game meat and that it is much less consumed by practically the entire population than meat from livestock.
Despite this, the AESAN advised against the consumption of game meat in “children under six years of age, pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant, [...] given that the lead fragments cannot be eliminated with complete safety.”
In adults, the recommendation is a maximum consumption of one serving per week (about 150 grams).
Although the negative impact of lead from hunting on the health of some consumers is accepted by experts and administrations, there are no complete epidemiological studies in Spain that put precise figures on the magnitude of the problem.
In large part this is due to the fact that the origin of the disorders it causes is not always determined and the difficulty in discerning the specific origin of the lead that a person has accumulated throughout life (leaded gasoline, for example). , was not banned in Spain until 2001).
The AESAN document proposes to “promote, to the extent possible, the limitation in the use of lead ammunition in favor of other available alternatives” with ammunition made of other metals, such as steel, copper or some alloys.
“This is something that has already been done in some specially protected humid areas due to environmental pollution problems caused by pellets.
But, unfortunately, it has not spread to the rest of the territory,” García Fernández censures.
Manuel Gallardo, president of the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation, points out the enormous economic impact that this change of metals would have in relation to a problem that is not perceived as important.
Beyond the cases now occurring in Italy and Portugal, “there is no alarm of food contamination due to ammunition and this, added to the fact that there are no viable alternatives to lead ammunition, means that certain decisions are not made, that would cause million-dollar losses in the European Union,” he defends.
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