June 8, 1999
Web posted at: 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT)

In this story: Scare leads to bans worldwide Calls for new regulations RELATED STORIES, SITES

LUXEMBOURG (CNN) -- Belgium has refused to take dairy products off its shelves, in defiance of European Union officials who are concerned following the discovery of cancer-causing dioxin in food.

The government has banned sales of butter, Belgian poultry, eggs, fatty beef and pork, and all byproducts. But it refused to go further, despite EU insistence.

Furious European Union health ministers met in Luxembourg on Tuesday to try to assess the danger to consumers and European food exports after Belgium allowed dioxin- contaminated food products to go to market for a month before informing its EU partners.

"It is a scandal," said German Health Minister Andrea Fischer, who chaired a meeting of the 15 health ministers.

The EU executive Commission was also harshly critical of Belgium's reaction to the crisis.

"We were less than impressed how this was handled in Belgium," said EU Commission spokesman Gerry Kiely.

The EU Commission has insisted on the destruction of food products from suspect farms. Some 80,000 kilos (176,000 pounds) of dioxin-laced animal feed is estimated to have spread to some 1,400 farms. Some of that feed was exported to France and the Netherlands.

European Union officials are still trying to estimate the cost of the crisis to the EU economy. The Belgium food industry association says it has cost the country $500 million.

The source of the cancer-causing dioxin hasn't been confirmed but Belgian authorities have arrested the operators of a Flemish company that sells animal fats to manufacturers of feed.

Scare leads to bans worldwide

A growing list of countries, including the United States, have issued bans on everything from poultry, eggs, pork and beef to byproducts from Belgium and even the entire 15-nation European Union.

The EU as a whole is being especially hard hit in Asia.

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.

Malaysia imposed a ban on all meat, eggs, and dairy products from the EU. Singapore suspended sales of all livestock and byproducts imported from any European country.

Calls for new regulations

The dioxin scare has prompted calls for an independent body to regulate food safety across the 15-member European Union.

"That is something that needs to be examined very, very carefully and closely. It may be the right answer. It may be the direction in which we have to go," said Alexander Doring, of the European Federation of Compound Feed Manufacturers.

Stuart Thompson of Britain's National Farmer's Union said he can see the logic of a pan-European body but said governments can never regulate against negligence.

"We're under European administration. We are in there. If we are trading as a bloc then we should be regulated as a bloc as well. I don't think it is the regulation that is at fault here. It's the negligence on the part of the individuals involved."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.