Think twice before you crack open that morning egg if you live in Europe. Across the EU, consumers are being warned against contaminated eggs after 4709 German farms were closed and egg production halted. Officials from Germany’s agriculture ministry fear that up to 150,000 tons of animal feed have been contaminated by dioxin, a fatty acid meant for industrial use that somehow got into the feed supply. Better call off the French Toast alert.
The trouble affects eight of Germany’s 16 states, closing 4,468 farms in the state of Lower Saxony, 152 farms in North Rhine/Westphalia, 52 farms in Schleswig-Holstein, and 27 in Saxony-Anhalt. The closings are a necessary step while the state continues to tests the produced food products for further traces of the dioxin contamination. That said, German officials say the mixing of eggs in the packing will prevent any serious dioxin-related deaths from bad eggs.
“The states are acting as they must in banning as a precaution – and this in the absence of concrete results from analyses – all products, including eggs and meat, which had partially contaminated fodder as their origin,” said German agriculture officials. Added a spokesman from Britain’s Food Standards Agency, “The mixing of the eggs will have diluted the levels of dioxins and they are not thought to be a risk to health.”
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