Netherlands, Germany, Belgium await dioxin results

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The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are awaiting results of tests on whether animals and meat have been contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin after discovering it in potato feed, authorities said on Friday.

A total of 162 Dutch cattle, pig, sheep and goat farms, eight farms in Belgium and three in Germany have been shut as a precaution after officials discovered earlier this week they all bought a potato feed product that was contaminated with dioxin.

The European Commission and authorities in the three countries have ruled out serious risk to public health, saying contaminated animal products from the involved farms had not reached consumers.

But the dioxin scare has spread outside the involved countries and officials in South Korea imposed a ban on imports of pork and dairy products from the three EU member states, according to media reports.

Korean Internet news agency edaily said on Friday the Korea Food and Drug Association also planned to collect food products imported from those countries from the market.

TEST RESULTS SEEN NEXT WEEK

Examinations of feed and animals and any impact on the food chain, such as in meat and milk, are still underway in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium and results could be expected next week.

“Reopening of the farms will depend on the result of the tests. The meat tests are not expected to be ready before Monday,” a Dutch agriculture ministry spokeswoman said.

The German state ministry said it would take until the middle of the next week to complete tests on feed and animals.

Initial Dutch results have shown contaminated milk at only two of the affected farms and relatively low dioxin levels in meat from other farms, authorities said on Thursday.

All affected farms in the three countries had been tracked down and no more closures were expected.

Contaminated feed was at the root of recent European food scares such as the discovery of an illegal hormone in Dutch pigs in 2002 and a 1999 Belgian scandal of dioxin in chickens.

The contaminated potato feed product was from the Dutch unit of privately held Canadian potato chip maker McCain.

The reason was a German-made clay used for sorting potatoes, McCain has said. Potato peelings left over from chip production are used for making animal feed.

McCain Foods Holland has also launched a broader investigation after halting feed sales from its three Dutch factories last week.

Dioxins are one of a number of toxic chemicals that originate in pesticides or industrial processes, seep into rivers and lakes and build up in the flesh of fish and animals.

The European Commission, which has again tightened hygiene requirements on animal feed this year, has praised the three member states’ swift actions in dealing with the dioxin issue. (With additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg)

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