European Commission to sue Belgium over dioxin scare
European Commission to sue Belgium over dioxin scare
SINGAPORE (Reuters): Supermarket shelves around Asia were largely bare of many European foods on Wednesday as the European Commission prepared to launch legal proceedings against Belgium over the dioxin health scare.
Indonesia and Myanmar this week joined their neighbors in the region in banning meat, poultry and dairy imports from several European countries.
France said on Tuesday its tests on food products and animal feedstuffs had uncovered no contamination by the cancer-causing chemical, but Asian nations were taking no chances.
China has launched a nationwide effort to track down any meat, poultry and dairy products imported from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany since Jan. 15, the official China Daily newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper also said China would only allow meat, dairy and poultry products from the four countries to be sold after they have been certified as dioxin free. Otherwise, they would be destroyed, it said.
Europe's most serious food scare since the "mad cow" crisis broke after it emerged that chickens on about 400 farms in Belgium had been given feed contaminated with the toxic chemical dioxin.
Countries around the world have now shut their borders to Belgian meat and dairy products and some have widened the temporary bans to include other European Union countries.
Hong Kong, which suspended the sale of poultry, pork, beef and dairy products from the four countries effective June 4 and is considering banning the import of eggs, began recalling suspect eggs from local retailers late last week.
One million eggs had been recalled by late Tuesday. They were to be marked, sealed and stored by the importers until investigations into the food scare in Belgium were complete.
The Australian New Zealand Food Authority said import bans on egg, poultry, beef pork and dairy products from Belgium, France and the Netherlands were still in place, but would be reviewed on Thursday.
In Malaysia, where the health scare pushed even the Kosovo crisis off the front pages, health officials said $2.8 million worth of foodstuffs had been detained since June 9 at border points. Another $700 million was taken off shop shelves, they added.
But on Tuesday, the health ministry said 51 imported products had been certified dioxin-free and would be allowed back in. Singapore lifted its ban on Swiss products, except for eggs, some brands of Irish-produced infant milk formula, and products from Norway including egg and dairy products.
Full bans remained in place in the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand.
European Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said European Commission legal proceedings were planned against Belgium but this "formal" step might not be taken until June 23.
"It's clear there will be proceedings," he told a news conference on Tuesday after a two-day meeting of EU farm ministers.
He said action may go beyond Belgium's failure to alert its EU partners quickly enough of a potential problem and could include a failure to implement adequate food safety measures.