BRATISLAVA, January 10, (WEBNOVINY) — In December, over one million eggs and 42.6 tons of pork was imported from Germany to the Slovak market. “For now we have no other choice than to believe the statement of the German side that they did not originate from the incriminated territory”, said Slovak Agriculture Minister Zsolt Simon at a news conference on Monday. In the first week of January, over 365,000 eggs were imported from Germany, which are now in an egg packing facility in Ruzomberok. Data on poultry imports from Germany in December has not been available yet. In the first week of January, German poultry was not imported to Slovakia.
Results of dioxin tests of poultry and eggs imported from Germany will be known on Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning. Therefore, the temporary ban on their sale remains in effect and their sale will start only after the publication of the results. Simon underscored that his ministry is still seeking in which further food products the dangerous substance might be present. The ministry issued a regulation on January 4 according to which each importer takes over responsibility and has to declare that the goods do not come from the territory in Germany that used the contaminated fodder. Simon said that also the Netherlands and Great Britain have adopted similar measures as Slovakia while they are planned also in the neighboring Czech Republic.
In early January, German investigators have found excessive levels of cancer-causing dioxin in chicken – the first such confirmation of tainted meat since the discovery that German farm animals had been fed contaminated fodder mixtures, possibly for months.
SITA