By Anthony O. Miller
THE GOVERNMENT yesterday again whittled down its list of Belgian imports suspected of containing the cancer-causing poison dioxin.
It was at least the fifth such Health Ministry scratch of products from its June 11 list of 104 suspect Belgian food imports and four kinds of animal feeds.
Several varieties of Belgian-made Woodies-brand chocolates were taken off the list in the latest cut. These included its Chocolate Stick with Hazelnut Wafer, and its Orange Flavoured chocolates. Both have expiry dates of September 15, 1999.
Also cut from the June 11 list were four varieties of Cavalier-brand sugar- free chocolates. Among them were its Praline Hazelnutcremes, Praline Hazelnutcremes Avec Noisettes and Nuts, Lait Milk and Mocca Coffee chocolates. All have expiry dates of September and October 15, 1999.
Different varieties of Guylian-brand and Limar chocolates, Reddy margarine and Reddy mayonnaise of Belgian origin were also scratched from the list this week.
The Guylian chocolates included its Cafina variety (bag) with an expiry date of June 11, 2000; and its Destrooper Florentine, La Trufilina, Opus (box), La Perlina, Canasta, Opus (tin) and Opus chocolates. The Guylian’s chocolates had expiry dates ranging from August through September of 1999.
Limar raw industrial raw chocolate flavouring, with six different batch numbers and expiry dates, was also removed from the suspect list. Batch numbers and dates can be obtained from the Health Ministry.
Reddy Mayonnaise (470grams), with expiry dates of March and April 2000, and Reddy Margarine (500-grams and 100 grams) with expiry of March 24, 2000, were also removed from the list.
The Health Ministry earlier removed half-a-dozen varieties of Jacques-brand cookies, various batches of Barry Callebaut industrial raw chocolate and Lu brand’s Choco Prince and Pim’s biscuits from the list.
Cyprus has impounded tons of Belgian export foods and animal feeds, and ordered shops to strip shelves of all Belgian foods on the June 11 list, and hold them for possible destruction.
The owner of a fats reprocessing plant in Belgium has been arrested following discovery that he allegedly mixed motor oil containing dioxin and PCBs, with the animal fat his firm shipped to the Verkest fats and oils company, of Ghent, Belgium, according to news reports.
Verkest, once a prime suspect in the potentially lethal scandal, apparently unwittingly supplied the dioxin-poisoned fats to animal feed producers in Belgium, Holland and France. Those companies then supplied feed to poultry, pig and cattle farms in their own countries, and Germany and Spain.
The contamination sparked an EU ban on the sale or transfer of Belgian animal feeds, raw food and processed food products.
Dioxin can kill some species of newborn mammals and fish at levels of 5 parts per trillion.
It causes grotesque birth deformities, since it is passed down from generation to generation. Children are at grave risk, since dioxin is transmitted in human breast milk and cow’s milk.
