EU sees no more danger from German dioxin alert

HAMBURG (Reuters) - European Union health experts said on Wednesday they see no more danger from an alert in Germany following the discovery last month of the toxic chemical dioxin in animal feed, meat and eggs.

An EU health alert started on January 3 when German officials said animal feed tainted with highly-poisonous dioxin had been fed to hens and pigs, contaminating eggs, poultry meat and pork at the affected farms. Russia and several other countries later banned some German meat imports.

"The member states, meeting in the framework of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, recognized that the contamination incident is fully under control by the German authorities and there is no risk that potentially contaminated food and feed are placed on the EU market or dispatched to Third countries," an EU statement said.

It added: "All potentially contaminated feed fat, compound feed and farms having received potentially contaminated feed have been blocked by way of strict precaution pending the outcome of dioxin analysis."

Some 4,760 German farms were sealed off at the height of the alert but the number has now been cut to only 49, it said.

Germany's government on January 19 announced a package of measures to raise animal feed production standards including a new licensing system for makers of oils and fats for animal feed use.

Prosecutors in Germany are still investigating the cause of the contamination and specifically whether industrial fats and feeds company Harles and Jentzsch distributed fatty acids meant for industrial paper production to animal feed processors.

The Russian government would not lift its ban on German pork imports before late March, the Interfax newsagency reported on Feb 18.

(Reporting by Michael Hogan; editing by Keiron Henderson)