Foie Gras - Controversy

Controversy

Gavage-based foie gras production is controversial, due to the force feeding procedure, and the possible health consequences of an enlarged liver.

A number of countries and other jurisdictions have laws against force feeding or the sale of foie gras due to how it is traditionally produced. In modern gavage-based foie gras production, force feeding takes place 12–18 days before slaughter. The duck or goose is typically fed a controlled amount of corn mash through a tube inserted in the animal's cuticle-lined esophagus.

Foie gras production has been banned in some nations because of the force-feeding process, including some members of the European Union, Turkey, and Israel. Foie gras producers maintain that force feeding ducks and geese is not uncomfortable for the animals nor is it hazardous to their health.

The city of Chicago banned the production and selling of foie gras from 2006 until 2008, when it reversed its decision based on the criticisms that the ban was maneuvered into a larger package that the city council had voted on.

The state of California has also prohibited the production and sale of foie gras, effective 1 July 2012. Violators will receive a $1,000 fine. Some restaurant owners have declared they plan to use a loophole in the new law; if restaurant goers bring in their own foie gras, restaurants may legally prepare and serve it.

Animal rights and welfare groups such as PETA, Viva!, and the Humane Society of the United States contend that foie gras production methods, and force feeding in particular, constitute cruel and inhumane treatment of animals. Specific complaints include livers swollen to many times their normal size, impaired liver function, expansion of the abdomen making it difficult for birds to breathe, death if the force feeding is continued, and scarring of the esophagus. PETA claims that the insertion and removal of the feeding tube scratch the throat and the esophagus, causing irritations and wounds and thus exposing the animal to risk of mortal infections.

A recent study demonstrated oral amyloid-A fibril transmissibility which raised food safety issues with consumption of foie gras over "concerns that products such as pâté de foie gras may activate a reactive systemic amyloidosis in susceptible consumers". Foie gras as an amyloid-containing food product hastened the development of amyloidosis. Amyloidosis may be transmissible, akin to the infectious nature of prion-related illnesses. However, a correlation between foie gras consumption and these diseases has not been confirmed.