The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to submit a report to the EU this afternoon on how hundreds of tonnes of pharmaceutical waste from Ireland ended up in the Belgian food chain.
According to an EPA spokeswoman, the report will be submitted to the EU Standing Committee on Animal Health and Food Safety. It is expected to outline whether proper procedures were followed in the exportation of the waste.
The scare began when illegal growth-promoting hormones were found in pig feed in Belgium.
The hormone, medrosyprogesterone acetate(MPA), was said to have been found in sugar water, a waste product from the process used by Wyeth Laboratories in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, to coat contraceptive pills.
Between January 2000 and June 2002, 725 tonnes of waste from HRT tablet production, including MPA, was sent from Wyeth to Bioland
The waste was exported by Cara Bio-environmental, which is based in Dublin, to a firm in Belgium, Bioland, which in turn supplied the Dutch feed manufacturers.
Mr Joe Walsh, the Minister for Agriculture, briefed his EU counterparts yesterday following discussion on CAP and promised more information today.
He said that the Irish authorities were still investigating the management of waste material from the pharmaceutical sector.
The alert has now spread to 11 of the 15 EU countries.
