March 5, 2013
Germany finds excessive aflatoxin in corn shipment from Serbia
In a shipment of corn from Serbia destined for livestock feed, German authorities have found excessive levels of aflatoxin B1.
The state agriculture ministry in Lower Saxony, a north-western region, said on Friday (Feb 22) that the shipment totalled 45,000 tonnes. Most of that was impounded but about 10,000 tonnes was delivered to 13 feed producers that produce feed for pigs, cattle and poultry in several German states and in the Netherlands.
The state''s ministry of agriculture said 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, it added.
It added official controls were on-going, with the company working alongside German food and feed safety officials while awaiting results of further analysis.
Alfred C. Toepfer International GmbH said Friday it had imported 45,000 tonnes of highly toxic cornfrom Serbia, with a batch of the animal feed contaminated with aflatoxin having already been supplied to more than 3,500 farms in northwest Germany.
The 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.
Aflatoxins are produced by a fungus that can grow on hay or grains and appear in the milk of animals that eat the mildewed feed. Aflatoxin has a strong carcinogenic effect, so food and feed are subject to strict rules on its presence, the ministry said. The maximum permitted level is 0.02 milligrams per kilogramme (mg/kg), but the corn from Serbia registered amounts of up to 0.204 mg/kg, it added.
About 10,000 tonnes of the affected shipment was blocked in the German port of Brake, while 25,000 tonnes was withdrawn from a warehouse in Bremen, the ministry said.
The German ministry said it does not believe that there is any danger to consumers and there is no indication legal limits on aflatoxins in milk have been exceeded.