REUTERS - Ireland said on Sunday that feed tainted with toxic dioxins which led Ireland to recall all pork products came from one farm and the source had been contained.

The Irish government ordered on Saturday recall of all domestically produced pork products from shops, restaurants and plants because of contamination with dioxin -- which in some forms and concentrations, and with long exposure, can cause cancer and other health problems.

Ten farms had been using the tainted feed, responsible for less than 10 percent of Irish pigmeat production, and the recall was a precautionary step, the Irish Association of Pigmeat Processors said.

"One small feed supplier is concerned and the feed source concerned has been contained and is in the process of being withdrawn," the association said, adding the industry had an annual turnover of 500 million euros ($634.5 million).

"A very limited number of farms sourced feed supply from this particular feed supplier," Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith told public broadcaster RTE.

But consumers and shop and restaurant owners expressed concern.

Teresa Moran, 57, a careworker and mother of five, said: "I have two pieces of pork in the freezer and I'm afraid of my life to touch them. I don't know what we are going to do about the ham for Christmas. We'll just have to wait and see."

Cafe Sofia, near St Stephen's Green in Dublin, was advertising boiled eggs, fresh fruit and porridge in lieu of the usual breakfast roll of sausage, bacon and egg.

"This will affect business. Business is already affected by around 10 percent from the recession," said manager Val Angelov.

The shelves in nearby Fresh, an upmarket grocery store, had been emptied of pork products.

RESTRICTIONS

Ireland's Food Minister Trevor Sargent told broadcaster RTE surplus dough, baked or unbaked byproducts of baking are often dried to become suitable as animal feed. The drying process requires that the fuel be a food-grade oil.

"We do have our suspicions this time that the oil being used was not food grade and therefore may have led to the contamination which has caused such a crisis throughout the industry but only affecting a small amount of pork.

Authorities are also investigating samples from 37 beef farms but say the risk of contamination there is minimal as the cattle graze for most of the year on grass.

"The risk is very minimal really, if at all, to beef," a Farm Ministry spokeswoman said, adding beef test results may come in later on Sunday.

The government has placed restrictions on the movement of animals at the beef farms but not on beef sales or consumption.

The European Commission said Ireland had acted well and quickly in recalling all locally produced pork products.

It said the tainted animal feed was given to 10 pig farms in Ireland at levels about 100 times the maximum permitted in the European Union.

"Pigs from these farms were after slaughter processed by meat-processing plants which are responsible for about 80 percent of the total supply of pork meat and pork meat products from Ireland," it said.

Ireland exported 368 million euros ($467 million) worth of pigmeat in 2007, half of it to Britain, according to industry body Food and Drink Industry Ireland.

Britain's Food Standards Agency said: "From the information that we have at this time we do not believe there will be a significant risk to UK consumers."

Professor Alan Boobis, a toxicologist at Imperial College London, said: "One would have to be exposed to high levels for a long period of time before there would be a health risk. Even the levels detected in these pigs are extremely low and present no immediate cause for concern."