Brussels, 09/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The undertaking made by the Spanish authorities to push forward their investigation into the production process responsible for the contamination of batches of olive residue oil and the information provided to other Member States of the Union on this incident (see EUROPE of 7 July, p.8) lead the competent working group of the standing committee on foodstuffs not to decide at this stage on any precautionary measures in the Union. The results of the investigations will be passed on to the competent authorities in the Member States and the European Commission via the early warning system, and the foodstuffs committee will once more look at the question during its next meeting 19 and 20 July. The information provided by the Spanish authorities are as follows: 1) the presence of certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons has been detected in certain bottles of branded olive oil, that is to say the oil obtained by heating the olive residue after cold pressing; 2) the analysis of 13 samples carried out by the Spanish authorities reveals that it is impossible to link the problem of a specific brand or a particular conditions, given that the contamination results from the production process itself.
The more detailed analysis of this process and the examination by the scientific committee of the maximum limit values tolerable for human ingestion of this product will allow, feel some Member States, to determine the precautionary measures that are required to protect citizen's health.