990749 Belgium Pledges to Test All Pork, Poultry Exports

Brussels - Belgium pledged to systematically test all pork and poultry exports for dioxin contamination until August 31.

Belgian officials made the promise at a meeting of EU veterinary experts in an effort to calm fears about possible contamination of food with the cancer- causing chemical dioxin.

“The Belgians made a declaration that from now until the end of August...everything will have to be tested,” an EU source said, adding that the measure applied to pork and poultry.

Until now, there were no restrictions on exports from farms that did not appear on a blacklist of Belgian farms suspected of having received contaminated animal feed.

At the EU veterinary meeting, the Belgian authorities told the EU how they were dealing with the crisis and sought to allay the fears of its EU partners over the crisis. The veterinarians will meet again next Tuesday for an update of the situation.

Separately, Belgium said it had quarantined 175 more farms and would destroy all stocks of suspect food.

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