DIOXINS IN FODDER IN THE NETHERLANDS (2004)
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Overview comment pages
The facts
End october 2004: again, consumers were scared by high levels of
dioxins in fodder, and some 200 stock-farms (temperorarely) were closed
in the Netherlands, and a few in Belgium and in Germany. But this time
the contamination probably is from natural (yes!) dioxins. The origin is
from some sort of clay that is used for different purposes, in this case
to sort potatoes for their starch content. Clay is added to water to
increase it's density. Potatoes which have more starch will sink, while
potatoes with less starch will float. The "heavy" potatoes are peeled,
washed, cut and fried. The peels with some rests of the clay are mixed
with other ingredients and sold as fodder.
If the contamination is by natural causes, then it is with high
probability from the decay of wood by molds in ancient times. A similar
problem has been met in the USA, where clay, contaminated with dioxins,
was used in chicken feed. The clay was from deep layers, which were
formed some 60 million years ago. These were not contaminated by any
human intervention. De composition of the different dioxin congeners was
unlike known human/industrial sources, neither from (forest) fires.
Because the high TCDD content, and the near complete absence of
chlorinated difurans (PCDF's), the most probably source is bio-chemical
decay of wood by molds, at the time the clay was formed. For a comment
of the USEPA on that contamination, see reference [18].
Addition 16 november 2004: Most stock-farms were released from
quarantine, as the dioxin contamination of the meat was within the
limits.
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On the net: 21 november 2004.
Last change: 6 February 2006.
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