Two executives of an animal-feed company suspected in Belgium's poultry scandal have been arrested and charged with fraud and falsification of documents, judicial sources said yesterday.
The arrests came as the European Union ordered the removal from sale and destruction of all Belgian chickens, eggs and poultry products.
The two businessmen, Mr Lucien Verkest and his son Jan, run the Verkest animal-meal company in Deinze, in north-western Belgium.
The EU moved swiftly yesterday to agree the destruction of food made from Belgian chickens and eggs from farms that used the contaminated Belgian animal feed.
The new food scare came to light last Friday when Belgium banned the sale of domestically produced chicken and eggs.
Investigations revealed that farmers had begun noticing sick animals in January and February and dioxin contamination was confirmed in May.
The Farm Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, warned that Belgium could face legal action for failure to notify its EU partners.
The cancer-causing feed was sold to hundreds of farms and, it is believed, exported to the Netherlands, France and Germany.
According to the Belgian government, "the contamination was at its highest in March and April".
Commission spokesman, Mr Gerry Kiely said the Commission should have been informed when it first became known in April. "All egg and chicken products from those farms which used the contaminated feed will have to be traced and destroyed," Mr Kiely said. EU vets did not demand a total ban on all chicken and egg exports from Belgium and neither did the Commission, once the Belgian government notified them that it had identified the farms using the contaminated animal feed.
However, they told the member states to remove all Belgian products that might contain chicken or eggs from the market shelves. The products are varied, ranging from delicatessen products to Belgian chocolates and covering all food products from the affected farms containing at least 2 per cent eggs.
Some 500 farms have been closed down pending further investigation and the two ministers responsible - the Belgian Farm Minister, Mr Karel Pinxten, and the Health Minister, Mr Marcel Colla - have resigned, signalling the probable end of their political careers. Belgians go to the polls in 11 days and will not view this scandal with favour according to the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique, who have named the cancer-causing dioxin cover-up, "Chickengate". The main objective of the restrictions, which will apply to eggs and chickens produced between January 15th and June 1st, "is to avoid any harm to the consumer and to ensure that contaminated products are not sold or exported and don't come into circulation in any other way", Mr Fischler said at a news conference in Brussels yesterday.
Before they can export in future, Belgian companies will have to have a certificate guaranteeing products are free of contamination.
EU veterinary investigations will continue to see whether contaminated feed had been fed to other livestock, including pigs.