Brussels, 20/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - By submitting to the Standing Committee on Foodstuffs limit amounts applicable in 2002 for dioxins present in foodstuffs and animal feeds, the Commission has just implemented the first stage of the Community strategy, initiated by Commissioner David Byrne (Consumer and Health protection) to tackle the problem of public health posed by these carcinogen organic compounds present in the food chain.
Dioxins (aromatic polychloric compounds resulting for chemical process issued from natural phenomenon such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, or human activity: manufacturing of chemical products, exhaust emissions, incineration, etc.) are soluble in fats, but not biodegradable, so that once freed into the environment, they accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals and human beings, and return to the food chain to the detriment of consumer health. The strategy put forward by the Commission aims to counter a phenomenon that had given rise, two years ago, to a major food scare in the Union following a contamination of foodstuffs in Belgium. Below are the main themes of this strategy:
1) Setting maximum levels beyond which all foodstuffs and products aimed at animal feed, whose content of dioxins exceed these levels, would be considered as unfit for consumption. These levels have just been submitted for approval by experts from the Member States in view of being applicable as of January 2002. They are based on the scientific opinion issued by the scientific foodstuffs committee in November 2000 and updated last 30 May.
2) Setting of target values representing the target towards which to move (and which would be reached within a few years), namely a level of exposure for human beings below the tolerable daily ingestion dose in relation to the weight of the person (14 pictograms/kg).
3) Setting of action level or warning ceilings for the cases where the levels of dioxins exceed the "desirable" level. The aim of these values, which are situated between the limit values and the target values, is to initiate the intervention of the competent authorities and the various operators in view of identifying the source of direct and crossed contamination, and to take the necessary steps to eliminate them.
In the knowledge that food accounts for more than 80% of the daily dose of dioxins ingested (out of this total 80% generally come from the ingestion of animal fats) and that the level of dioxins in human food finds their source in the consumption of bred animals fed with food containing high levels of dioxins, the setting of maximum levels should play a major part in the attempt to reduce the total levels of dioxins present in the food chain. Over the last fifteen years, this level has recorded a downward trend, but a significant number of EU citizens still ingest a quantity of dioxins above the tolerable daily ingestion dose.