Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Public Health Service 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, MD 20857
FDA Talk Papers are prepared by the Press Office to guide FDA personnel in responding with consistency and accuracy to questions from the public on subjects of current interest. Talk Papers are subject to change as more information becomes available.
T99-27 Judith Foulke: 202-205-4144
June 11, 1999
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA
These products are being detained because of the possibility that they may be contaminated with polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins. Dioxins and PCBs are groups of compounds that may be potential carcinogens at low levels of exposure over extended periods of time and may have other types of toxicological effects. FDA is detaining these products as a precautionary step.
FDA is taking this action in response to recent reports that a fat product from a rendering company in Europe was contaminated with PCBs and dioxins in January 1999. This fat was subsequently sold to European animal feed manufacturers. Most of these feed manufacturers are in Belgium although some of the contaminated feed has reportedly been shipped to feed manufacturers in France and the Netherlands. Food producing animals may have consumed the feed resulting in potentially contaminated food products, for example, eggs. Since some animals that ate the contaminated feed may have been rendered and the renderings added to feed shipped to other European countries, FDA is also detaining all animal-derived feed and feed ingredients as well as pet food from all European countries.
FDA is gathering information on food products that may be affected. Because this was a one-time incident with eggs being only one component of many in egg-containing products, FDA believes that the exposure of U.S. consumers to harmful levels of PCBs and dioxins is minimal. However, FDA is continuing its investigation and is sampling and analyzing products that have been imported since the incident in question. FDA is working with officials in Belgium as the investigation progresses.
At this time, in order for products to be released from detention, importers must provide laboratory test results showing PCBs are not detectable and/or that dioxins do not exceed 1 part- per-trillion (ppt).
The United States Department of Agriculture is holding poultry and pork from all European Community member states because of the possibility that the livestock may have been fed the contaminated feed. USDA is initiating investigations and analyses of these products.
FDA will continue to provide updates to this information. For updated information, consult the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition web site under the heading "Chemical Contaminants"
FDA Import Alert #99-24 "DETENTION WITHOUT PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF HUMAN FOOD PRODUCTS and ANIMAL FEEDS CONTAMINATED WITH DIOXIN AND/OR PCB COMPOUNDS"