Brussels, 23/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - More fear was created than harm - this is the opinion of EU member states regarding the incident involving German eggs and meat contaminated with dioxin. This case created quite a stir between the end of 2010 and the beginning of this year (see EUROPE 10300). It is now closed. Everyone now believes that Germany managed the crisis well and that the situation is now under control. In order to convince consumers, whose confidence was seriously shaken, member states' experts meeting in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health published a joint statement on Wednesday 23 February, the main points of which are as follows:
“The member states, meeting in the framework of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, recognised that the German authorities have been managing the contamination incident very efficiently and that they adopted a very strict precautionary approach to manage this incident in view of providing a high level of feed and food safety.” Member states' representatives also, “recognised that the contamination incident is fully under control by the German authorities and there is no risk that potentially contaminated food and feed are placed on the EU market or dispatched to Third countries”.
As soon as the incident occurred, member states were duly informed by Germany via the Rapid Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF). The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health has been comprehensively informed by Germany on the dioxin contamination incident at five meetings, four times in January 2011 and the last time on 15 February 2011. At the height of the crisis, 4,760 farms were affected - this number has dropped to 49 farms today after analysis results and/or investigations allowed restrictions to be lifted under safe conditions, explained the Commission. (A.N./transl.fl)