Dioxin as a hazard in food - the current situation in Germany and contamination incident of food and feedstuff 2010/2011

Dioxins are a frequent source of contamination of food and feedstuff. Although these substances are not produced purposely anymore (as they were in case of PCBs) there is still a degree of contamination present in the environment, stemming from residues of production or from other sources such as waste burning. The background exposure has decreased severely within the last 20 years, a fact that can be best observed with the example of the dioxin levels of human breast milk. There are however still background contaminations which pose a threat to human health, especially in food coming from a marine or a fresh water source. For these products it is indicated to restrict their consumption or to ban them from the market completely, for example eel from certain rivers in Germany of herring from certain parts of the North- and Baltic sea. Another development that is of growing importance is the high contamination of beef from free-range cattle and of eggs from free-range chicken. Especially in Germany there is a fast growing market for these because more and more people take an interest in animal welfare issues and prefer free-range or ecologically produced food over the conventionally produced alternative. In 2010/2011 a major scale dioxin contamination scandal took place in Germany. It was exemplary for the way contamination is introduced into the food chain as well as for the crisis management of the official structures in Germany. The source for the contamination was the mixing of contaminated technical fats into feed fat and consequently into compound feed. This route of contamination has occurred in many cases before, like the Irish pig meat scandal of 2008 and the Belgian incident of 1999. Adding to this was the obviously negligent, perhaps punishable action of the fat producer who knew about the contamination well in advance but failed to notify the authorities. The actions taken by the German food safety authorities were quick and the incident could be contained within Germany. The 27 blocking of farms, on site investigations at the feed mills and the feed fat producer and the recall of food products from the market were carried out in a short time. Within 24 days (December 22nd 2010 the authorities were first notified, January 14th all suspected farms were blocked) the situation was under control. The blocking of farms as well as the unblocking according to the traffic-light system proved good measures in this case. Also the RASFF helped on the EU-level to contain the incident (in case of the feed delivered to Denmark and France, the eggs delivered to the Netherlands and the pig meat sold to Poland and the Czech Republic). Compared to the 2008 dioxin scandal with Irish pig meat the crisis management was very efficient. On the other hand it could have been prevented at an earlier point, because elevated levels of dioxins had been found in ownchecks. It should therefore be made mandatory that such results should be forwarded from the laboratories to the responsible authorities