Russia tightens food imports from Germany amid dioxin scare

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.