Moscow: Russia`s agriculture watchdog has
stepped up monitoring of imports of animal origin food
products from Germany and some other EU countries in the wake
of discovery of dangerous levels of dioxins in the fodder used
by German farmers.
The Russian federal agriculture watchdog -
Rosselkhoznadzor - has requested official information from
Germany and EU on the probe and steps taken by them to prevent
the highly toxic dioxin from entering the human food chain.
It warned that the failure to provide such information
"as soon as possible" would lead to restrictive measures by
Russia.
"In the case of non-receipt of such information as
soon as possible, or if a peer review process considers the
measures adopted by the German veterinary service to eliminate
the possibility of dioxin in feed and food products inadequate
to the extent of the threat, Rosselkhoznadzor reserves the
right to impose restrictive measures on deliveries of animal
products to Russia from high-risk regions," the agricultural
watchdog was quoted as saying by state-run RIA Novosti news
agency.
On Friday, the German authorities banned the sale of
produce from more than 4,700 farms because of fears eggs and
meat may be contaminated with dioxins.
The European Union says that although the dioxin
levels in affected eggs are five times the permitted level, a
human would have to consume vast amounts of them for his
health to be affected.
However, experts quoted by Euronews TV channel claim
that although the consumption of contaminated food will not
kill you instantly, it would lead to serious health risks in
the long run.
PTI
