The systematic use of banned animal waste products in the production of animal feeds has been exposed in France by an EU scientific inspection mission.
Its report, which was released by the Commission yesterday, also reveals inadequate separation of human and industrial sewage from animal sewage, as well as major discrepancies between French and EU interpretations of what EU law allows to be used in animal feed production.
The Commission has received assurances from the French authorities that all the practices complained of will be ended and has asked other member-states to report on their own definitions of "sewage sludge" before the end of the month.
A spokeswoman for Mr David Byrne, the Food Safety Commissioner, said the Commission was aware similar practices, which were also being ended, were features of the rendering and abattoir industries in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The Commission is preparing a tightening of the legislation.
EU post-BSE legislation forbids the use of sewage sludge and faeces from such plants but does not ban the use of blood or other by-products of slaughtering.
The practice in most factories is to wash the waste from the floors of slaughtering rooms into pits through filters which remove solid matter. Grease and fats are then separated from the remaining liquids which are then subjected to biological treatment to remove bacteria.
The French, and some others, have insisted until now, contrary to the view of the Commission, that the EU ban on use in feedstuffs did not cover either solid material recovered from filters or grease removed at the second stage, but only sludge arising from the biological treatment of the waste water in the final stage of the process. The Irish share the Commission's strict interpretation of what is prohibited.
Yet the report finds the French in systematic breach of even that most restrictive definition.
The British government last night rejected angry calls to ban imports of French meat in response to the report. But Mr Nick Brown, the agriculture minister, urged British shoppers to boycott French food because of the French ban on British beef. Two British supermarket giants, Tesco and Asda, announced they were joining the boycott.
