Bread and droppings: pest control group warns of rat contamination

 

"If you are about to bite into a slice of wholemeal toast at the breakfast table or tuck into your favourite lunchtime sandwich, it may be as well to look away now. Pest control experts yesterday warned that your loaf of bread could have been spiced up with some unwanted extras - rat hairs, urine and even droppings.

The glut of wheat following last year's bumper harvest together with a surge in the rat population is being blamed for the possibility that rodents have contributed a little something to your sandwich.

According to the National Pest Technicians Association the rat problem is the worst for 30 years, and wholemeal bread is more at risk because it is less processed than white. Farmers' representatives and the milling industry dismissed the claims as scaremongering, arguing that wheat for human consumption was stored very carefully and deliveries of wheat were minutely inspected before they were used to bake bread, biscuits or other products.

The NPTA is alleging that because so much wheat was produced some British farmers are struggling to store it securely, while recent mild winters have caused the number of rats to increase by more than 20%. NPTA director Peter Crowden said the rat problem was the worst he had seen in 30 years. "There's a lot of grain in a 30-tonne lorry and they don't test it all. And what about the rats urinating over it all as they run through?"

Crowden said he had seen rats and evidence of rats in wheat storehouses this winter. He called on the government to tackle the rat population, which he put at between 30 million and 40 million in the UK. He insisted he was not exaggerating the problem to frighten consumers and farmers and thus further NPTA interests.

However, Guy Gagen, chief arable adviser for the NFU, said he would be "very surprised" if rat hairs or droppings did get into bread. He said farmers who produced crops for human consumption were members of a rigorous assurance scheme. Inspectors made sure rodents were kept at bay. Gagen said wheat intended for human consumption tended to be stored in metal containers that could be tightly secured.

Martin Savage, trade policy manager of the National Association of British and Irish Millers, said he was "perplexed" at the claims. "This could provoke a food scare and it's absolute nonsense," he said, though he accepted the rat population was on the up - he had come across one farmer who had got through a quarter of a tonne of poison since the last harvest.

Crowden insists he has got it right. "They want to come out with me if they don't believe it." But even if droppings are getting through, Crowden does not believe it will do you any harm. "We've all got a bit namby-pamby, haven't we? It won't actually hurt you. It just isn't very nice.""