April 5, 2011
 

Philippines lifts embargo on German meat, food products

The Philippines has officially lifted the temporary ban it imposed on the importation of poultry meat, pork and their products, eggs, milk, gelatin and processed animal protein from Germany.

Efren Nuestro, director of the Bureau of Animal Industry said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has already issued a memorandum order authorizing the lifting of the ban.

Nuestro recommended the lifting of the ban on the condition that meat products from Germany are certified as dioxin-free. He also said Berlin had requested the removal of the ban.

The Philippine government slapped a temporary ban on poultry meat, pork and their products, eggs, milk, gelatin and processed animal protein from Germany effective on January 11 this year following reports that batches of fatty acids from a biodiesel company which was intended to be used for the paper industry got mixed with fat for the production of feeds.

The DA said the feeds fat were delivered and sold to manufacturers and was incorporated in feeds for poultry and swine. The feed fat was suspected to be contaminated with dioxin.

The DA pointed out that dioxin, which is toxic, can have adverse effects in humans and cause severe reproductive and developmental problems.

A Feb. 22 statement released by member-states of the European Commission's (EC) Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health indicated 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 European Union market or dispatched to Third World countries."

The committee report, which was available on the EC web site, noted that as a precautionary measure, all feed-fat produced at the feed fat company from Nov. 12, 2010, onward were considered to be potentially contaminated and were blocked pending the outcome of a dioxin analysis.

"Based on the analytical results from food of animal origin from blocked farms, it is evident that the effective contamination of potentially contaminated food is very limited," said the committee following a recent meeting of member-states where the results of the tests were presented.

Nuestro said that while the country imports meat products from Germany, it is not a major source of pork and poultry products for the Philippines.