EU further requests for Hormone Pollution

Lead: Brussels, July 10 (Reuters) - the European Union on Wednesday told Dutch authorities to shut down more farms and feed factories suspected of illegal hormone pollution At present, EU countries are busy dealing with this new food safety crisis Belgium is investigating how the banned hormone gets into juice soft drinks from a small local company and pig feed in the Netherlands They believe Ireland should inform the Netherlands about its delivery of abandoned drugs to a Belgian company that is now suspected to be at the heart of the hormone contamination In recent years, there have been a series of food safety crises in Europe, ranging from BSE and FMD disasters in the UK, dioxin pollution in Belgium and weeder scandal in Germany The Netherlands, the world's third-largest pork exporter, has closed 42 farms after the hormone scandal, suspected of using feed contaminated with the growth hormone, known as MPa MPa is allowed to be used as a growth hormone in some other parts of the world, but it is strictly prohibited in the EU However, the EU still requires the Netherlands to take further measures "The Dutch side must ensure that all farms and feed producers related to this incident are closed down and a full list of these farms and feed factories is released immediately." "Ireland and Belgium will continue their investigation," EU food experts added after an emergency meeting Belgium is investigating a local company, bioland, which could be the source of the banned hormones that caused the pollution On Tuesday, AFSCA, the Belgian food safety authority, said the illegal hormone MPa was also found in juice drinks supplied by bioland, which further sparked consumer panic about food safety Although the feed contamination in the Netherlands is the latest, the last batch of contaminated juice drinks was shipped as early as may last year As a result, AFSCA believes that these juices have long been consumed by consumers Piset vanthemsche, head of AFSCA, said at a press conference that juice containing banned hormones was also sold to a German food company and a Dutch food company over the same period.