Brussels, 06/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - There has been a further development in the meat and dioxin-contaminated egg scandal that has gained considerable magnitude in Germany where eight Länder are now affected. Although the Netherlands is the only EU member state to have received batches of tainted eggs from Germany (see EUROPE 10287), egg-based processed foods have been exported by the Netherlands to the United Kingdom, the European Commission acknowledged on Thursday 6 January, albeit refusing to over-dramatise the situation. Speaking to the press on Thursday, Frédéric Vincent, the spokesman for Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli, said: “It is a question of three batches of which one is frozen and is still in the Netherlands. There is potential for contamination but contamination has not been established. The Commission has called on the Dutch authorities to carry out tests on the frozen batch”.
According to the spokesman, rather than crying wolf, this new development proves that traceability of exported products works as it should and that the RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) functions. On Thursday 6 January, during the afternoon, the commissioner was to discuss matters with Isle Aigner, the German federal minister for agriculture and consumer protection, regarding the rate of contamination possible and to discuss the still unanswered questions raised by the EU. Given that, to date, 1,000 German farms are under blockade, what will become of the laying hens? And what will happen to the eggs not yet sent out? “The German authorities continue to keep us informed. We have permanent contact with them”, the spokesman said.
The batches of German eggs exported to the Netherlands were grade B (i.e. not intended for human consumption). A first six tonne batch (86,000 eggs) mixed with other eggs in the Netherlands became 14 tonnes of processed eggs now past their date of freshness. These tonnes of processed eggs, which date back to 3 December, were exported to the United Kingdom.
The second batch of 3.3 tonnes (50,000 eggs) dates from 15 December. Mixed with other eggs in the Netherlands, they become 17.4 tonnes divided into three batches, two of which were exported to the United Kingdom. One of them remains frozen in the Netherlands and will be used for analysis.
“As things stand, I do not know what these eggs were processed into when they arrived in the United Kingdom”, concedes Frédéric Vincent, but, he goes on to add, “although there is a potential for contamination”, the first tests carried out in Germany show that the potential level of contamination is “relatively low”.
In the products analysed, contamination varies between 12 and 16 pictograms of dioxin per gram of fat - this being four times greater than the maximum dioxin content authorised which is 3 pictograms under the legislation brought in by the EU after the dioxin chicken scandal in Belgium dating back to 1999. In any case, this incident in Germany is not of the same scale as the scandal in Belgium, when far greater contamination rates were discovered (around 700 pictograms/gram of fat), the Commission states.
Germany will have an opportunity to once more look at the state of affairs before the other EU member
states during the meeting of the standing committee on the food chain and animal health on 11 and
12 January. (A.N./transl.jl)