990638 US Allows Most Pork Imports From EU to Resume

Washington - U.S. food safety officials allowed Denmark to resume shipments to the United States, two weeks after they slapped a temporary ban on all EU pork and poultry imports because of health concerns.

Thomas Billy, head of the agriculture department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said the United States was removing Denmark -- the European Union's largest pork exporter -- from the hold because the Danish government had provided “sufficient information to demonstrate that Danish pork is safe for consumers.”

The United States blocked pork and poultry imports from the EU on June 3 after it was revealed that animals in Belgium, France and the Netherlands had eaten feed that was contaminated with dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), both of which can cause cancer.

Most of the pork and poultry consumed in the United States is produced domestically.

The United States expanded its temporary ban on June 11 to include eggs and egg-containing products from the three EU countries where the contamination occurred.

The EU shipped about 75 million pounds (34 million kg) of pork products and 141,684 pounds (64,267 kg) pounds of poultry products to the United States between January 1 and May 31.

Nearly 55 million pounds (25 million kg) of the pork was from Denmark.

“All other European countries that have shipped pork or poultry to the United States during 1999 must also provide FSIS satisfactory written assurances before their product will be released from hold,” Billy said.

In addition, the United States will hold and test pork and poultry shipments from Belgium, the Netherlands and France for PCBs until U.S. food safety officials collect enough data to make sure the meat is safe for consumers, he said.

Testing will continue “as long as is necessary to determine whether the current dioxin/PCB incident represents a single anomaly or a recurring pattern of contamination,” he said.

The United States will test for PCBs because they would be present in much greater amounts than dioxin, Billy said.

The Belgian food industry estimates it has lost more than $750 million because of the dioxin-in-food scare. Most of the contamination occurred on Belgian farms.

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