Several food scares in recent years have hit Europe, from Britain's mad cow and foot-and-mouth woes to a case of contamination of food with cancer-causing dioxin in Belgium.

The Netherlands, the world's third-largest pork exporting nation, has sealed off 42 farms identified as using the feed laced with the MPA growth hormone, a substance that has raised concern it may cause infertility in people.

But the European Commission urged further action. "The Netherlands has to make sure that they block all farms and feed producers potentially involved in the incident and has to circulate immediately a full list of all these farms and feed producers," it said.

"Ireland and Belgium will continue their investigation," it added after an emergency meeting of EU food safety experts.

Belgian prosecutors are investigating a local firm, Bioland, as the possible source of material that contaminated Dutch pig feed with the hormone, which is banned in the European Union but approved as a growth stimulant elsewhere.

Fears of further contamination were spurred on Tuesday when Belgium's health food safety agency AFSCA said it had found MPA traces in materials Bioland supplied to two soft drink firms.

While the feed contamination occurred more recently, the last shipments of these soft drinks syrups were in May 2001 and the agency believed people had already consumed the drinks.

Piet Vanthemsche, the head of the AFSCA, told a news conference the syrup was also supplied to one German and one Dutch food company in the same period.

BELGIUM TAKES IRELAND TO TASK

Belgian Health Minister Magda Aelvoet told parliament Bioland imported waste from an Irish drugs company, but said proper notification procedures had not been followed.

"For such materials there exists a pre-notification procedure from member state to member state," she said.

Vanthemsche said the European Commission also confirmed this week Belgium should have been notified of the shipment.

Irish environmental protection agency officials could not be reached for comment late this week.

Unlisted Bioland went bankrupt in early May and was not registered with AFSCA. Bioland's telephone has been disconnected and company executives could not be reached for comment.

Belgium said Bioland had only been cleared to process sugar waste that was destined for the food industry and not any waste related to pharmaceuticals.

A local public prosecutor told Reuters one of the two owners of Bioland had been arrested on Tuesday on charges of breaching hormone laws. The second owner was being traced.

EU ON ALERT

MPA, or Medroxyprogesterone-acetate, is banned in the European Union as scientists believe it might cause infertility in people. All products that contain it must be destroyed.

It is approved as a growth stimulant in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. It is still used by people in birth control pills and also in hormone replacement therapy for women going through menopause.

The European Commission said EU states should check if domestic firms had been clients of Bioland and see if pharmaceutical waste was being disposed of correctly.

The Dutch farm ministry has raised the number of farms using hormone-laced feed at 42, from three in late June when it first announced some farms had used contaminated feed.

Compound feed potentially contaminated with MPA had been sent from the Netherlands back to Belgium and Germany, while Dutch pigs fed with this feed were exported to Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain, the European Commission has said.

The Bioland feed deliveries dated from nine months ago, AFSCA said.