These products, which have been declared “for technical use only”, were used in the production of fats destined to the feed chain. He pointed to the fact that all compound feed companies which have received batches of the contaminated feed fats are fully cooperating with the competent authorities to trace all farms that could have been delivered compound feed containing the contaminated fats.
He said that the implementation by the compound feed industry of own-control programs has substantially improved its capacity to detect dioxin contaminations entering the feed material supply chain.
Vanden Avenne said that such incidents are regrettable and should not occur, given the track record of past contamination incidents. However, the highly unusual dioxin congener profile indicates a different, yet unknown contamination pathway in the biodiesel industry, which must be verified without delay.
He stressed the need to further improve traceability systems and testing plans at the level of suppliers of blended fats and mixed fatty acids, in particular when such companies are also manufacturing products for technical use.
