New animal feed contamination scare in Belgium
EU: May 22, 2000
BRUSSELS - More than 200 Belgian farms have been
placed under surveillance after the discovery of high
levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in
animal feed manufactured by a company in the town
of Feluy.
The government said in a statement that any food which
might have come from animals fed with the suspect feed
would be removed from the food chain and destroyed, along
with feed made by the Bauduin-Cambier company.
"We've taken all the measures we possibly can to deal with
this problem. It's lucky that we picked up on the
contamination as early as we did, thanks to our testing
programme," Agriculture Minister Jaak Gabriels told
VRT-TV1 television.
The latest Belgian food scare comes a year after the
outbreak of the country's dioxin-in-food crisis.
The crisis broke last May when carcinogenic dioxins
entered the food chain via animal feed made with
contaminated fats.
Shop shelves across Belgium were stripped bare as
products were recalled and countries around the world
banned imports of Belgian food products.
A spokesman for Bauduin-Cambier said the company
suspected PCBs found in its feed may have originated in
insecticides.
The government statement said the positive sample was the
first to be found after 15 previous tests at the company had
proved negative.
It said the European Commission had been informed of the
situation. The Commission, the executive of the 15-nation
European Union, operates an early warning system to
inform all EU states of potential food health problems.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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