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5 November 2004
BRUSSELS – Belgian food safety experts have slaughtered pigs at six Belgian farms to see whether the animals had eaten food contaminated with highly toxic dioxins, it was reported on Friday.
Belgium’s federal agency for food chain security (AFSCA) ordered the animals to be killed after receiving warnings about a suspect batch of animal feed that was imported from the Netherlands.
Apparently the feed may have included potato peelings that contained unacceptably high levels of dioxins, products which in dangerous concentrations can cause cancers.
The feed scare has caused a total of eight agricultural holdings – the six pig farms and two cattle raising establishments – to be temporarily closed in Belgium.
In the Netherlands, 162 farms have been quarantined.
Several years ago concerns about chicken meat contaminated by dioxins sparked a major food scare in Belgium.
[Copyright Expatica 2004]
Subject: Belgian news