Brussels, 28/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the EU Council adopted without debate the directive establishing new maximum dioxin and PCB content in animal feed (see EUROPE of 21 July, p.6). Thus, animal feed and raw material entering the composition of compound feedstuffs that exceed these limits will be excluded from the animal and human food chain. The Member States should be able to meet these new provisions from 1 July 2002. Furthermore, the other proposal concerning maximum dioxin content in foodstuffs, which was already the subject of an agreement at the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), will soon be formally adopted by the Council.
The directive adopted amends another 1999 directive concerning undesirable products and substances in animal feed. The maximum content of dioxin for animal feed and the raw material for such feed are: raw material of plant origin, 0.75 nanograms/kg of animal feed; - minerals, 1.0 ng.kg; - animal fats, 2.0 ng.kg; - milk, milk products and eggs, 0.75 ng.kg; - fish oil, 6 ng/kg; - fish, 1.25 ng.kg; - fish food, 2.25 ng.kg.
The European Commission announced that it planned to present new recommendations fixing the intervention thresholds and, in the long term, target values relating to raw materials for animal feed. The intervention thresholds will be an early warning tool, intended to set off a preventive approach on the part of the relevant authorities and operators, with a view to identifying the sources and means of contamination and to taking measures for eliminating them, writes the Commission in a press release. The target values should contribute to the reduction of emissions from these substances into the environment.
Coreper managed to reach an agreement last week on the other aspect of the Commission's "anti-dioxin" strategy, namely the proposal concerning maximum dioxin content in foodstuffs. The important change compared to the initial proposal concerns the exemption granted to Finland and to Sweden on the subject of herrings and salmon from the Baltic Sea, which contain a high level of dioxins, well over the authorised threshold. These countries will be authorised, until 31 December 2006, to allow marketing of these fatty fish from the Baltic Sea produced and intended for consumers on their territory, on condition that they inform the population of the health risks that some vulnerable groups may be running, such as children and pregnant women. Finland and Sweden insist that eliminating fish (Vitamin D) from the daily diet of their populations could have a negative impact on the health of the population, and above all for the elderly and old.