Case study no. 5The dioxin in yoghurt scandal

2013-1-RO1-LEO05-28756

LLP-LdV/TOI/2013/RO/007

Dioxin in yoghurt

Dioxin is considered to be toxic and carcinogenic , being injurious to health.

More Danone yoghurts contaminated with dioxin reached the Romanian consumers’ refrigerators.

The National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) admitted that a part of the contaminated yoghurts have been sold to consumers, but they refused to mention the quantity. According to representatives of the Kaufland hypermarket chain, batches of Danone fruit yoghurt with sour cherries and forest fruits were withdrawn from the supermarket in Pitesti yesterday.

ANSVSA has withdrawn two batches of yoghurt possibly contaminated with dioxin from the market, but, on the other hand, the Danone company claims it was only one batch.

Liviu Rusu, an executive within ANSVSA at that time, claimed that, in an official document, the European Commission (EC) required the Romanian authority to keep confidentiality in the case of the Danone yoghurts contaminated with dioxin. For this reason, the named official refuses to offer details about the sold quantity under contamination suspicion. He declared for HotNews.ro that a part of the contaminated yoghurt has been sold, but he refused to mention the quantity. The ANSVSA office invoked the same data confidentiality.

However, a representative of the European Commission invalidates Mr. Rusu’s version, explaining that it is the

national authorities’ decision whether to publish the information from Brussels.

•Philip Tod, spokesman of the European Commissioner on Health problems,, Markos Kyprianou, has submitted a press release in which he declared that the general rule of the Commission is to communicate the name of the company involved in a contamination incident only to the national authorities through the Rapid Alert System, so that they might work with the help of that information. The EC does not make public the name of the companies in the alerts we publish on our site. The national authorities will decide whether the information can be made public . It is the authorities’, not the Commission’s decision to make public the names of the companies involved.

Danone announced that it manufactured a batch of products using more fruit containers, of which

only one container is related to the European alert (expiry date 11 September 2007). Company

officials declare that it is a quantity of 700 kilos, which can be traced precisely by the manufacture

date and time printed on the cover.

•Following this announcement Liviu Rusu, the ANSVSA executive, specified that the Authority has actually withdrawn two batches of yoghurt, having expiry dates 20 August 2007 and 11 September 2007, respectively. Selgros also mentions two possibly contaminated batches, the same as representatives of the Carrefour supermarket chain.

Although the law recommends “the rapid change of information between The National

Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority, The Ministry

of Health, The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural

Development and The National Consumer Protection

Authority, both through the central structures, and the

county and local structures”,

ANSVSA has not transmitted this

information to the other institutions involved. ( Order

68/2005 for approval of the Standard

regarding the Rapid Alert System for food

and feed).

Gheorghe Mencinicopschi, chief executive of the Food Research Institute, says that “the public should have been informed of this case”. He also said that “ we deal with one of the most toxic substances. Dioxin is a carcinogenic substance, very dangerous to human health. It attacks the skin and has negative effects at hormone level and on reproduction”. He says that dioxin got into the guar gum because of the producer who did not observe the health security standards.

The chief executive of the Food Research Institute has declared that “ dioxin got in a criminal and accidental way into the guar gum from the Danone yoghurt. On the same production line on which chemical substances had been processed, they started to process the guar gum, without any hygienization”.

Philip Tod specified that the Czech Republic has informed on 14 August the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed on the usage of fruit products containing suspect guar, a

suspicion present at Danone Romania level, as well.

According to tests and calculations performed at that time, the dioxin level in

the final products was within the maximum admitted residue limits for yoghurt. However, as a precautionary

measure, the company and the national authorities have withdrawn the products

from the market.

The source of infestation: India

Most probably, dioxin got into

the dairy products

through an additive, E-412,

obtained in India from the

guar beans.

At the end of July, the UNIPELTIM Company, an additive producer, was internationally

notified to withdraw some of its products

from the market, after they were found to be contaminated

with dioxin. The contamination source was the Indiaglycols

Company .

Based on official analyses performed on the batch of Delicious yoghurt with sour cherries, having expiry date 11 September 2007, company officials announced that the Danone products are in conformance with regulations and safe for the consumers.

However, as a precautionary measure, the company decided not to return the batch on the market , for fear that ,during the investigations, the storage conditions at low temperature have not been completely met.

Danone România CEO said that a set of supplementary analyses have been performed in their own laboratories, on the batches having expiry dates 22, 23 and 26 September, the results confirming the fact that the products meet the consumer safety requirements.

Danone has a portfolio of 65 products, of which

only 5 contain guar, and only 2 came from the

critical source. Likewise,

Danone România CEO said that “he knew for sure that many

prominent companies have had discussions and made

investigations regarding this possible contamination with

dioxin”.

Jacques Ponty, Danone CEO for South-East Europe at that time, said that “looking back at the effects that the dioxin ‘scandal’ has had on the company business in Romania, it managed to be on the rise again

only in November”.

The consumers’ reaction not to buy any yoghurt, especially fruit yoghurt, even after the analyses results proved negative, was felt on the whole market.

According to a research performed by AC Nielsen research company, during the period August-September 2007, yoghurt sales dropped by about 8% compared to the period June-July of the same year.

Danone România has not completed the financial report for 2007, but Ponty estimates that last year the company has recorded a 20% growth of its turnover , compared to the financial results obtained in 2006.

Questions

• How many possibly dioxin contaminated batches has ANSVSA withdrawn from the market? • What quantity of incriminated product results from the Danone

officials’ declaration, which can be traced precisely by the manufacture date and time printed on the cover? • How did dioxin get into the dairy products?