Curb on Belgian meat products

The European Commission moved over the weekend to impose tough restrictions on the sale of Belgian beef and pork products which may have been tainted by dioxin. The move followed confirmation by the Belgian authorities that it feared contaminated feed-stuffs had been fed to livestock other than domestic fowl.

The Commission again met Belgian ministers yesterday for a briefing on the latest information, but Belgian sources said it was still unclear what particular contaminant had contained dioxin. The EU's scientific veterinary committee was meeting yesterday evening on the issue and EU health ministers will hear a report today from the Belgians on what has become the biggest public health scare in Europe since the BSE crisis in 1996.

Last Wednesday, the Commission banned the sale of domestic fowl, eggs and derived products from some 554 farms. Yesterday's decision adds at least 500 pork producers to the list and an uncertain number of beef producers.

The restrictions cover roughly some 10 per cent of egg production and 2 per cent of pork, but the effects here are far more dramatic as shops empty their shelves of unsourced stock. Belgian butter became the latest food to be pulled from supermarkets over the weekend.

The Belgian authorities are also required to trace and withdraw potentially contaminated products and notify other member-states of their actions.

Countries throughout Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia have banned imports of food from Belgium - notably poultry, eggs, beef, pork and their by-products, including chocolates.

The crisis is threatening to engulf other European countries as the US and some Asian nations have banned imports of all European meat and dairy products, fearing contaminated animal feed could have been used in other European states.

A spokesman for the Commission said yesterday such responses were "disproportionate", citing that EU exports to the US of pork totalled some €230 million, while those from Belgium amounted only to some €15 million.

The US chain McDonald's has pulled dairy desserts off the menu in France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands as a precautionary measure over the dioxin scare, a company executive said yesterday.