The Irish Commissioner for Food Safety, Mr David Byrne, called yesterday on EU farm ministers to back the systematic testing of beef and fish for dioxin residues.
Mr Byrne's proposal comes in the wake of a Belgian study which found highly toxic PCB residue levels in 1 per cent of a sample of 1,000 cattle tested following the recent food contamination scare. The presence of PCBs is regarded as a reliable marker for the presence of the carcinogenic dioxins.
The Belgian tests had been aimed at establishing whether any animals still affected by the use of contaminated oils by feed supplier Verkest were still on the market. The result was completely positive on that issue but also disclosed the presence of an alarmingly high level of "background" dioxin contamination.
There clearly was a problem associated with animals reared close to some industrial plants, particularly waste disposal incinerators, Mr Byrne said and therefore a need to monitor the scale of the problem on an EU basis. He would be bringing forward proposals to add PCBs and dioxins to the list of substances for which member-states were required to carry out mandatory tests.
Mr Byrne also said he was prepared to bring forward legislation defining "sewage sludge" if states continued to insist there was ambiguity about what matter could be added to animal feed stuffs. There are particular problems in France, Germany and the Netherlands about the extent to which, for example, the sweepings of abattoir floors have to be treated before they can be incorporated in feed stuffs - sewage sludge itself is banned.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said he welcomed Mr Byrne's attendance at the Farm Council, which marked the significance now being placed on food safety. He would be supporting Mr Byrne's call for dioxin testing, he said, and was confident that Irish regulations ensured that no "deleterious" matter goes into Irish-produced feed.
He insisted that any sweepings were processed only to retrieve useful proteins which could then be safely added to feed.
Mr Walsh welcomed the commitment of the Farm Council to a negotiating mandate for the forthcoming World Trade Organisation round. Ministers called for further liberalisation of world trade but affirmed their determination to defend the "European model", the CAP, and the complete package of reforms agreed in the Agenda 2000 talks in the spring.
The US and Australia will be pressing for a further dismantling of the EU's system of subsidies, but ministers insisted that the EU's efforts to reduce prices to world levels should be seen as sufficient.
Mr Walsh also emphasised the particular need to enshrine an animal welfare and public health dimension in any agreement, so that the progress made on such issues in the EU is not undermined at international level.
Earlier, Mr Byrne met the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, and its general secretary, Mr Michael Berkery.
Mr Parlon said he had impressed on the Commissioner the key importance to farmers of food safety and consumer confidence. They would welcome the establishment of a European Food and Drug Agency "with teeth" along the lines of that in the US, he said.
They had also expressed concern that the WTO round would see Irish farmers exposed to unfair competition from US farmers with access to cost-cutting biotechnology.
