Colour marker would curb illegal food chain activities, claims Green MEP
Speaking to FoodProductionDaily.com this morning, Dutch Green MEPBas Eickhout echoed the comments he made during the environment committee debate on dioxin regulation in Brussels earlier this week, saying that industrial oil producers should be obliged to introduce a colour tracer in their products before selling it on to fat manufacturers.
The MEPs discussed possible dioxin controls with European Commission representatives at Monday's committee meeting. The dioxin crisis in Germany has initiated calls for action across the bloc, with the situation there first coming to light at the end of December 2010 when it was revealed that Schleswig Holstein firm Harles and Jentzsch had mixed dioxin-tainted industrial fatty oils into animal feed.
The German scandal led to the closure of 4,000 farms and has sparked global concern.
"Too many incidents show that there is a real economic incentive for some feed business operators to use the cheaper industrial fatty oils in animal feed. While the increased surveillance suggested by the EC will go some way to reducing risk, a tracer such as a colouring in the oil would enable immediate detection of tainted produce,” said Eickhout.
German Green Party MEP Martin Häusling called for a fundamental change in many areas of policy during Monday’s debate: "Food should come from farms and not from industrial plants." And other German MEPs such as Christian Democrat Albert Dess and Socialist Ulrike Rodust urged harsher sentences in cases of grossly negligent food handling.
Meanwhile, EU health commissioner John Dalli formerly announced draft dioxin control measures at Monday's agricuture council meeting in Brussels. The proposals are informed by the German government’s recently announced preventative actions on the toxic compound.
The Commission’s proposals, which are expected to be voted on by member states at the end of February, include an approval system for fat and feed manufacturers, monitoring and testing in fat production plants; tighter separation of fats for industrial and feed use, and regulations to mandate private laboratories to report dioxin traces.
“With respect to dioxin monitoring a strict plan for sampling and analysis for critical materials in fat producing plants will be established. It may also be appropriate to cover other activities in the feed chain by increased monitoring.
A dioxin data-base, for instance, is already established within EFSA. We will explore how to use this as a better tool in future,” commented Dalli during the farm council deliberations on proposed regulation. ‘
Dalli also reported that a team from the Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office is to visit Germany this week to assist in investigation efforts there and to gain greater insight into how the contamination occurred.
Commenting further on the issue, MEP Eickhout agreed that there appears to be a real push now from Brussels to implement legislation. But he stressed that it “has taken three dioxin crises for the issue to be firmly placed on the EU council’s agenda," and he cautioned that similar preventative measures have previously been proposed - most notably after the Belgian dioxin crisis in 1999.
“Hopefully it won’t take another dioxin crisis to spur regulatory action,” added the MEP.
