Contaminated Serbian corn supplied to German farmers
Alfred C Toepfer International imported 45,000 metric tonnes of corn contaminated with aflatoxin from Serbia. A batch had been delivered to more than 3,000 farms in northwest Germany for animal feed.
According to German authorities 10,000 metric tonnes of the contaminated feed had been delivered to 13 feed producers in Lower Saxony, which processed the corn for compound feed for cattle, pigs and poultry. This was then delivered to 3,560 farms in Lower Saxony and 14 farms in North Rhine-Westphalia, with smaller proportions reaching the states of Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony. Some was even sent across the border into the Netherlands
Toepfer, a Hamburg-based trading house, a unit of Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) and French farming cooperative Invivo, said the remaining grain containing increased levels of aflatoxin was being stored and would not be delivered to any final customers or feed compounders.
It added official controls were ongoing, with the company working alongside German food and feed safety officials while awaiting results of further analysis.
Aflatoxin is a carcinogenic and the maximum permitted level is 0.02 milligrams per kilogram, but the corn from Serbia registered amounts of up to 0.204 mg/kg.
Lower Saxony’s Agriculture Minister Christian Meyer also criticized the feed sector. The scandal had come because the self-control system in the industry did not work. The warnings about contaminated with aflatoxin feed corn had existed for months.
Meanwhile, more than 800 milk samples were tested and found to be harmless.
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