Dutch test imported feed for dioxins
Date: 13-Feb-03
Country: NETHERLANDS
Animal feed produced by a firm in eastern Germany tested positive in January for dioxins, and about 100 tonnes of possibly contaminated feed from that company was exported to the Netherlands.
"A company in (the southern Dutch province of) Limburg imported the feed and sent it to four other companies," Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman told parliament in The Hague.
The four companies - three food processors and a cattle farm that makes its own feed - are in Overijssel, in the east of the Netherlands.
Veerman said steps had been taken to ensure the batches of feed and all animals that could have eaten from it would not reach the market.
He said he expected the first results from tests of the feed and livestock to be available around the weekend.
An agriculture ministry spokeswoman said the ministry was examining whether any of the feed was exported from the Netherlands, but added that this was unlikely.
Junior health minister Clemence Ross-van Dorp told parliament that it was not yet clear whether any tainted meat had ended up in Dutch shops.
Tests in January showed animal feed produced by a company in the eastern German state of Thueringen contained around 15 times the permitted level of dioxin. The company produces animal feed from bread unsold by shops and restaurants.
Dioxin has been linked to several cancers in humans, including lymphomas and lung cancer.
A spokeswoman for the Thueringen state agriculture ministry said the company had used a baking process using damp wood chips as fuel which was identified as the cause of contamination, but did not see a health risk.
"We do not regard the contamination levels as harmful to health but no level above the legal limit can be tolerated," she said.
The company produced 250 tonnes of contaminated feed between November 20 and December 23 which is known to have been sold. The firm's only foreign buyer was a Dutch company, with the other known buyers in Germany.
The firm has been ordered to stop selling feed and to stop using the process, the Thueringen ministry spokeswoman said.
Dioxin comes from both natural and industrial sources, such as medical and municipal waste incineration and paper pulp production. (Additional reporting by Michaal Hogan in Hamburg).
