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T99-30                     FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      Judith Foulke:       202-205-4144
June 23, 1999              
                           Consumer Inquiries:  888-INFO-FDA

ALL MILK AND MILK-CONTAINING FOOD PRODUCTS FROM BELGIUM TO BE DETAINED AT PORTS OF ENTRY

The Food and Drug Administration announced today that it is expanding the import alert issued June 11 on egg- containing products from Belgium to include milk-containing products such as cheese. The import alert recommends detention of products at ports of entry until importers provide laboratory test results showing the shipments are free of detectable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and/or dioxins.

As with the June 11 import alert, today's expansion is a precautionary step. The first import alert was issued shortly after FDA learned that fat used in animal feed manufactured and used in Europe was contaminated with PCBs and/or dioxins in a one-time incident in January 1999. Food producing animals may have consumed the feed resulting in potentially contaminated food products.

The initial import alert listed eggs, products containing eggs and game meats from Belgium, France and the Netherlands, and all animal feeds including animal derived medicated and non-medicated feeds, feed ingredients, and pet foods from all European countries. Today's expansion adds milk and milk-containing products from Belgium. FDA is working with Belgian and other European officials and gathering information on these and other food products that may be affected.

Once again, the agency is taking this action as a precautionary measure. FDA continues to believe that exposure of U.S. consumers to harmful levels of PCBs and dioxins is minimal because this is a one-time incident. Also, in most cases, eggs and milk are combined with other ingredients to produce final products. FDA is continuing its investigation and is sampling and analyzing products that have been imported since the incident in question.

FDA will continue to provide updates to this information. For updated information, consult FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Website under the heading "Chemical Contaminants".

FDA TALK PAPER

ALL MILK AND MILK-CONTAINING FOOD PRODUCTS FROM BELGIUM TO BE DETAINED AT PORTS OF ENTRY

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