Ireland found itself last night at the centre of Europe's latest food scare which has sparked off an eight-nation search for banned growth-hormone promoters in pigfood and pork and soft drinks exported from the Netherlands.
The growth-promoter, MPA, was legally exported as waste from a chemical plant in Newbridge, Co Kildare, to Belgium for processing but it found its way into pig feed and, in syrup form, into soft drinks in the Netherlands and possibly Germany.
The Netherlands has already banned sales of produce from 300 livestock farms while 65 animal-fodder producers have also been banned from selling their produce while the investigation continues.
Last night as health officials in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Britain and Luxembourg were testing for any contamination, the EU moved to reassure consumers there was no immediate danger.
The contamination does not present an immediate danger to consumers as MPA takes effect only with prolonged exposure, according to Ms Beate Gminder, spokeswoman of the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne.
The trail started in the Netherlands where tests revealed MPA - medrosyprogesterone acetate - in pig feed. Further inquiries led to two Dutch animal feed makers and from there to a bankrupt Belgian company, Bioland, which apparently supplied the Dutch manufacturers with the syrup contaminated with MPA hormone.
Bioland was said to have been using pharmaceutical waste sold by an Irish company in circumstances which investigators are still trying to pin down. A spokesman for Cara Bio-environmental, the Dublin-based company which exported the substance, said MPA traces were found in sugar water used in the Wyeth laboratories for coating contraceptive pills.
It had been exporting the sugar water to Belgium since 2000 and had with Wyeth carried out an audit to ensure the company was able to handle the material. The material was not reimported and no EPA licence was required for export, despite Belgian claims to the contrary.
Members of the EU food safety committee have decided on emergency measures to pinpoint all the companies involved, starting with Bioland, which might have been using the contaminated material.
The German consumer protection ministry has said sugar syrup imported from Belgium suspected of containing MPA may have found its way into some soft drinks. The Department of Agriculture and Food said last night that none of the contaminated pigmeat from the Netherlands had been imported here.