990639 Second Food Company Cited in Belgium

Brussels, Belgium - Investigators identified a second company as a source of cancer-causing dioxin in some Belgian food, raising fears that not all potentially tainted poultry, pork and beef products have been removed from supermarket shelves.

The government had been working on the assumption that the dioxin contamination originated from the Verkest company. They traced the company's products to farms and on to consumer outlets, banning all sales of suspect meat, eggs and other products to eliminate health risks.

On Tuesday, however, the two heads of Verkest were released and the head of another animal feed fat producer was arrested.

“The contamination has started with Fogra,” a company 120 miles away from Verkest in Bertrix in southern Belgium, prosecution spokeswoman Nicole De Roeck said.

It was unclear Tuesday whether Verkest was still implicated in the dioxin contamination. Despite their release, fraud charges are still pending against the company's two officials. Authorities said they discovered tampering with animal fat, though there was insufficient evidence to keep them behind bars.

“My two clients have nothing to do with the core issue of the case. They have nothing to do with the dioxin contamination,” defense lawyer Hans Rieder said.

Tuesday's announcement raised concerns that not all potentially contaminated food has been removed from supermarket shelves at home and abroad.

“If there is another source, we have to start from scratch again,” said Noel Devisch, head of the Farmers Union. “In that case it would be an even bigger tragedy.”

Belgian farmers have held protests in the streets for days over the increasing financial losses they are suffering because export markets are effectively closed, either by government decrees or by lack of consumer confidence.

Belgian authorities were investigating how Fogra's distribution network differed from that of Verkest.

“It is known that Fogra also delivered to foreign firms and we have to check that,” Health Minister Luc Van den Bossche told VRT public radio.

German food safety inspectors destroyed two shipments of Belgian meat after finding above-limit levels of dioxin, officials said Tuesday.

A load of Belgian chicken confiscated in Hesse state had more than five times the legal amount of dioxin, health authorities said. Belgian pork seized in Rhineland-Palatinate also had more dioxin residue than allowed under German law.

The European Union has started legal proceedings against Belgium for waiting a month before warning the EU about the contamination.

The Commission, the executive agency of the 15-nation EU, said Belgium didn't take sufficient steps to ensure tainted food would not be distributed to consumers or exported.

It also said the country failed to respect EU veterinary controls and did not comply with internal market rules about the transport of live animals and animal products.

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