Europe's Dioxin Crisis Reaches Germany
GERMANY - Just days after the southern German state of Bavaria was hit by a new scandal involving mislabeled spoiled meat, Germany had to temporarily close off five pig farms suspected of using dioxin-contaminated animal feed.Pigs from several German farms have been slaughtered for testing, while more than 650 EU farms, including five in Germany, remained quarantined on Wednesday after it became clear that faulty filters at a chemical plant in the Netherlands caused abnormal levels of the poison dioxin to reach animal feed.
According to the Belgian Federal Food Chain Security Agency (AFSCA), on several occasions in October two filters malfunctioned at a plant owned by the Belgium-based international Tessenderlo Group, contaminating a shipment of hydrochloric acid sent to PB Gelatins, which is part of the same group and supplies animal feed manufacturers.
The agency launched an investigation after its Dutch counterpart alerted it last week it to the presence of abnormal levels of dioxin in animal feed containing Belgian pig fat.
Source: Deutsch Welle
3 February 2006
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