Reuters | September 21, 1999
BRUSSELS - Belgian health and farms ministeries have sat on a damning report on the food industry since the end of 1998 - well before the country's crisis over dioxin contamination in food broke in May this year, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
French-language daily Le Soir said it had obtained a copy of a 400-page report produced by management consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers detailing the shortcomings of Belgium's food inspection systems.
Le Soir said the report had been held by the ministries for some three months before being presented to the cabinet of former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene in March this year, but no action was taken ahead of the elections in June.
A spokesman for Health Minister Magda Aelvoet confirmed the existence of a Price Waterhouse Coopers report, but told Reuters it was designed for internal government use and that he could not confirm its contents. The spokesman could not say when it was given to Dehaene's ministers.
Dehaene's centre-left coalition was defeated in the elections, partly over its handling of the crisis in which cancer-causing dioxins were found in eggs, chicken and pig meat.
The chemicals were eventually traced to animal feed made with a batch of recycled fats contaminated with motor oil.
Le Soir said the 1998 report noted weaknesses in the country's food control systems, which were the shared responsibility of four separate ministries. It criticised food standards authorities for being inconsistent and failing to use effectively the tools and sanctions at their disposal.
It also highlighted the lack of transparency in the animal feed industry, noting that there was no clear picture of who was supplying fat to feed producers. Firms in the industry had not been made aware of their responsibilities, the report said.
The need to restore the confidence of foreign consumers in Belgian food is crucial given that Belgium exports almost half its food production.
The damaging claim that Belgium knew of the threats to its food industry follows the revelation on Monday that a waste disposal firm used polluted sludge to make animal feed, including waste water from showers and toilets, as well as cleaning effluent from abbatoirs.
The practices, banned since 1987, were uncovered by a Flemish regional farms ministry report published on Monday.
The European Commission is investigating reports that animal feed in some meber states including France, Germany and the Netherlands had been tainted with sewage sludge, dangerous pesticides and heavy metals.
New European Food Safety Commissioner David Byrne is due to raise the problem at a meeting of EU farm ministers next week.
In a separate move, the European Commission said member state veterinary experts would consider a proposal to exempt Belgium's beef production from stringent tests to prove them dioxin-free. Similar tests would continue for the country's pork and poultry production.
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