June 7, 1999
Web posted at: 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT)

In this story: Suspects released from jail EU ministers meet in emergency session More nations ban Belgian, EU food imports RELATED STORIES, SITES

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- The Belgian government added butter to its list of banned foods Monday, denying residents another key ingredient in their increasingly meager diet because of a dioxin food contamination scandal.

Hundreds of Belgian farms inadvertently used animal feed laced with tons of the potent carcinogen, a revelation last week that forced two high-ranking ministers to resign.

Butcher and baker shops throughout the country closed after the government banned sales of poultry, eggs, fatty beef and pork, and all byproducts.

The food industry federation said the crisis over tainted animal feed already has cost producers $500 million.

Suspects released from jail

On Monday, authorities conditionally released the only suspects in the case, Lucien Verkest and his son Jan.

The government believed the dioxin contamination could be traced to a single provider of animal feed fattener -- the family's company.

The two remained charged with fraud for failing to provide pure animal oil to their clients, but there was insufficient evidence to keep them in custody, authorities said. Prosecutors appealed the decision.

Reject mechanical oil in the fattening oil for the feed was suspected as the source of the contamination.

EU ministers meet in emergency session

Ministers of the 15-nation European Union met in emergency session to address the crisis on Monday.

The EU's executive commission was negotiating with Belgium's government and assessing whether the list of more than 1,000 farms that used some of the 176,000 pounds (80 kilograms) of dioxin-laced animal feed was sufficient to start freeing up part of the Belgian food market.

"The list is now final," said Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene. Now that the farms have been pinpointed, the government hopes it will be easy to trace any contaminated meat, eggs and byproducts.

The government and leading opposition parties also agreed to set up a special inquiry commission to investigate how cancer-causing dioxins ended up on Belgian dinner plates so easily.

The health minister blamed a lack of controls on the products that went into animal feed. That minister and the farm minister quit last week after they were accused of knowing about the problem for a month without informing the public or the prime minister.

More nations ban Belgian, EU food imports

On Monday the Czech Republic banned imports of many Belgian food products, adding to a growing list of nations rejecting meat and dairy items from Belgium or other European Union countries.

The United States has blocked European Union imports of pork and poultry. South Korea banned the sale of Belgian, Dutch and French pork and poultry. Hong Kong banned beef and dairy products from the three nations and Germany.

Thailand banned meat, eggs and dairy products from Belgium, and Malaysia banned the same products from the European Union. Singapore suspended sales of all livestock and byproducts imported from any European country.

In Israel, Belgian products containing eggs, milk and meat were removed from store shelves.

The scandal was tearing at the center-left coalition ahead of Sunday's elections.

The farm ministry has traditionally been a fiefdom of Dehaene's Christian Democrats, and the Socialists said they were outraged that the scandal was taking so long to solve.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.