Dutch Find Higher Levels of Dioxin in Pig Farm - ANP
Date: 07-Feb-06
Country: NETHERLANDS
ANP said that after preliminary tests on pig meat, the VWA had found in three cases a reading of 1.3 and 1.5 picograms of dioxin per gram of fat, above a recommended level of 1.0.
Some 650 farms, including a handful raising chickens, were quarantined in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany after news first broke last week of dioxin contamination in animal feed.
The VWA said 143 Dutch farms were still quarantined.
Produce from the affected farms cannot be sold or transported while the order remains in effect.
Authorities in the three countries keep testing levels of the carcinogen dioxin in meat and feed.
Dutch and Belgian food officials have said that meat from contaminated farms was sold in shops in the last two months but they ruled out any serious risk to public health, although conclusive meat tests results are not yet out.
They said one would have to eat dioxin contaminated meat several times a day for a very long period to feel any impact, which they said was not the case in the two countries.
The dioxin, a class of chemicals widely used in industrial processes, got into Belgian pork fat ingredients used to make animal feed in October, authorities have said.
It was the latest contamination problem to hit Europe after a similar case in 2004, when dioxin was found in Dutch potato feed.
Dioxins are one of a number of toxic chemicals that originate in pesticides or industrial processes. They get into rivers and lakes and build up in the flesh of fish and animals.