FDA
TALK PAPER

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. 







T97-28                   Lawrence Bachorik   (301) 827-6242
July 3, 1997             
                         Consumer Hotline:   (800) 532-4440


     FDA STOPS DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF SOME ANIMAL FEED

     The Food and Drug Administration today told manufacturers of
animal feeds known to be contaminated with dioxin to stop the
further distribution and use of this feed, which the
manufacturers have been voluntarily holding at the request of the
FDA.  
     The agency took this action as a precautionary measure to
reduce the potential human exposure to dioxin.  Federal health
officials emphasize that the levels of dioxin found in the animal
feed, and in foods produced by animals that consumed the feed,
present no immediate public health hazard.  
     Working with the Environmental Protection Agency, the USDA
and state officials, FDA has been investigating the cause and
extent of elevated levels of dioxin found in two of 80 poultry
samples from a recently completed national survey.    
     The investigation disclosed that the source of the dioxin
was "ball clay," which is commonly added to soybean meal as a
"flowing" or anti-caking agent.  The soybean meals then added to
some animal feeds.  The ball clay was        traced to a single
clay mine in Mississippi, which at the request of the FDA has
stopped mining and shipping clay.  
     With today's action, FDA is stopping the animal feed source
that caused elevated dioxin levels in the two samples in  the
national poultry survey.  The survey was conducted jointly by
FDA, USDA and EPA to review the occurrence and level of dioxin
compounds, measured in parts per trillion, in food products. 
Surveys conducted on beef and pork from 1994 through 1996
produced data results consistent with those found worldwide.
     The term "dioxin" refers to a class of environmentally
persistent chemical compounds that are inadvertently created
through a number of activities, including certain types of
chemical manufacturing, combustion, chlorine bleaching of pulp
and paper and other industrial processes.  Dioxins are found
throughout the environment at low levels and are known to
accumulate in the food chain.  
     The FDA's and EPA's investigation of the source of dioxin at
the clay mine is continuing.
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