Tainted feed still being found on German farms
Date: 18-Jun-02
Country: GERMANY
However, Till Backhaus, farm minister for the east German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said there were no signs of nitrofen in the 183 tests conducted on meat and eggs produced by those farms.
At the end of last month, Germany was shaken by the discovery that animal feed tainted with the cancer-causing herbicide nitrofen, banned in the European Union, had been delivered to hundreds of organic and non-organic farms.
Hundreds of thousands of organically reared chickens were slaughtered after tainted feed was found at over 90 specialist organic farms. Contaminated, organically-produced meat and eggs are thought to have entered the food chain.
Farms have been sealed off and ordered not to sell their products. Five were allowed to resume normal working yesterday and 298 remain sealed off. But Backhaus said he expected more would be allowed to sell their products in coming days.
Officials have tracked the source of the contaminated chicken feed to a grain store in Malchin in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which in the days of communist East Germany was used to hold pesticides and weedkiller, residues of which had tainted wheat stored there.
The state is considering replacing a 50,000 tonne consignment distributed to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern farms even if it tests negative, Backhaus said.
He said the volume of contaminated wheat is still unclear. A grain cleaning unit which received grain from Malchin has been closed as a precaution for investigations, he said.
German officials said nitrofen is only a serious danger to health when consumed over long periods.