-
- The food war between Britain and France escalated last
night with a disclosure that French farmers had fed livestock with sewage
sludge including animal parts and human excrement for years.
-
- A report from the
European Commission denounced the French
conduct as unacceptable, and
said that the authorities had failed to take
any action against those
responsible or to recover the potentially contaminated
feedstuffs. It
gave Paris just 15 days to produce an "action plan"
for
putting its house in order.
-
- Britain was resisting calls for a ban on all French meat
products even though industry and opposition spokesmen demanded firmer
action and their immediate withdrawal from supermarkets. British
producers,
furious at the apparent hypocrisy of the continuing French
ban on British
beef, threatened to intensify the row by demanding
retaliation. The effects
on public health of human and animal waste
entering the food chain could
be enormous, causing serious food
poisoning and increased resistance to
antibiotics. Most of the animal
feed is used for French pig and chicken
production. According to latest
trade figures, Britain imports 95,000 tonnes
of chickens from France
and many are sold fresh in supermarkets as well
as being used for
ready-made foods and pies. Britain also imports 24,700
tonnes of pork,
but beef and lamb imports are small. They would also be
used in
imported pâtés, pies and ready-made meals.
-
- Last night a number
of supermarket chains made urgent
checks with the Ministry of
Agriculture on whether French meat and poultry
products were safe to
leave on shelves. The Government told the French
that it would be in
their interests to lift the beef ban swiftly. Nick
Brown, the
Agriculture Minister, told his French counterpart that he would
"categorically" reject calls for a unilateral ban on French
agricultural
produce because "we play by the rules and we would
hope that all
our European partners would do the same". His
unspoken message was
clearly that a decision to lift the beef ban was
required if France was
to prevent a massive rejection of its produce in
Britain. Tim Yeo, the
Conservative agriculture spokesman, called on the
Government to ban French
meat and animal products. He condemned the
"utter hypocrisy of the
French Government".
-
- European Commission
officials found that plants producing
animal feed included sewage
sludge in the ingredients and added that it
was "not fully
clear" if or how the French authorities separated
human waste
beforehand. The report was the result of an "urgent mission"
made by suspicious commission inspectors to France this summer. It
reveals
how animal feed plants have been recycling almost everything
they can salvage
from slaughterhouses, right down to the run-off that
collects in septic
tanks. That can include human and animal excrement,
waste water used for
cleaning and disinfecting lorries, motor oil and
chemicals. At one point,
French authorities were obliged to assure the
inspectors that sludge from
municipal sewage plants was never used.
"Certain plants in the French
rendering industry have used for
years prohibited substances such as sludge
from the biological
treatment of the wastewater or water from septic tanks,"
the
report says. Most waste was heat-treated to kill bacteria, but that
process was unable to remove chemicals and heavy metals.
-
- The report says that
"no further action was taken
by the competent authorities against
the plants, even where companies had
recycled clearly prohibited
material". France claims that the processing
plants have all now
stopped recycling sewage sludge, but Paris is still
arguing about how
"sludge" should be defined.
-
- Derek Armstrong, a veterinary
scientist for the Meat
and Livestock Commission, said that French
products should be identified
to check whether they came from plants
mentioned in the report.
|
