EU Says human sewage not being put into animal feed
Date: 17-Sep-99
Country: EU
"No member states use human waste in feed although there were a few
isolated incidents in the past," an EU official told Reuters, referring
to a Dutch case in August where small amounts of treated sewage were
found to have been added to feed.
A two-day meeting of the EU's Standing Committee for Animal Nutrition
(SCAN) this week failed to agree a common definition of exactly what
sewage sludge was, he added.
"The next step will be to send questionnaires to member states to see if
they are complying with EU legislation," a European Commission spokesman
said separately.
Officials said countries would have around two or three weeks to reply
to the highly detailed documents and that SCAN would examine the
responses at a meeting on October 11-12.
The Commission did not agree with certain member state representatives
in SCAN who believed that animal waste could be added to feed and should
no longer be regarded as sewage sludge once it had been treated at high
temperatures, they added.
The EU decided to look into what goes into animal fodder last month
following media reports in France which suggested feed had been tainted
with dangerous pesticides, heavy metals and human waste.
A series of inspections was carried out and a report, which has yet to
be made public, drawn up. The Commission has also written to Germany and
the Netherlands following similar allegations.
