An estimated 140 out of 536 pigs were slaughtered in the state of Lower Saxony after pork from one pig farm showed dioxin to be 50% above the permitted levels, regional authorities said on 11 January. Some 558 German farms remained blockaded, down from the 4,700 which were closed last week.
But dioxin in eggs, which had arrived in the UK from affected German farms via the Netherlands, was "more than likely" within safe levels, according to the EU.
Dioxin rates of 0.23 picograms per gram of fat were discovered in batches taken from around 14 tons of eggs that had been exported to the UK from affected farms. The rate at which the EU says that dioxins can become dangerous is three picograms per gram of fat.
Speaking at a news briefing in Brussels, Frederic Vincent, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, said EU officials had met with German industry representatives on 10 January to discuss the crisis. "We were somewhat disappointed by the absence of proposals made by the industry at this stage," he said.
To segregate fats intended for industry and for the food chain, "either we try to improve the monitoring throughout the production chain," he added, "or in the medium term we could have a voluntary or legislative system which would stipulate a stricter segregation".
German prosecutors are currently investigating whether fatty acids intended for industrial use were distributed to animal feed processors.
The contaminated fodder originated with Harles & Jentzsch, a distributor of oils for animal feed production, which is based in Schleswig-Holstein. In tests, fat samples taken from the company contained as much as 70 times the permitted amount of dioxin.
Pork is the most popular meat in Germany. In 2009, it accounted for almost 68% of the 7.7 million tons of meat the country produced. Around 1.4 million tons of German pork was exported that year, mostly to other EU countries.
