Deadly dioxins pose danger to food chain

摘要

The foot-and-mouth and 'mad cow' diseases might be the food safety crises that the dairy industry remembers most readily, but dioxins are a far more insidious threat - silent, persistent and almost invisible. Dioxins hit the headlines in 1999, when animal feed contaminated with these compounds got into the food chain in Belgium, eventually costing that industry an estimated US 1.5 billion dollar in recalls, lost exports and livestock. Inaction by the Belgian Government led to several government ministers resigning and eventually resulted in its defeat by a Greens-backed opposition.