Dioxin scare with mozzarella cheese

Dioxin has been found in the milk of 66 herds of buffalo around Naples. The Guardian reports that Brussels is asking for further information from Italy about the extent of the problem. Japan and South Korea have already banned imports of the cheese.

The BBC report that in a statement, the European Commission said the measures introduced so far were not adequate: "No recall of product potentially contaminated has been carried out, and the surveillance programme on the farms of the Campania region is still too limited". The BBC suggest that a potential source of contamination is currently being investigated i.e. that industrial waste has been illegally dumped on agricultural land used for pasture.

Why is dioxin a problem? Dioxins are highly toxic and carcinogenic (cause cancer). Dioxins are a by-product of industrial production in industries such as chemical and pesticide manufacture, paper bleaching. We have had food safety incidents in the past with this chemical. In 1999, dioxin was found in European animal feed which sparked a continent wide recall centred on Belgium. In 2004, there was another incident with milk in Belgium and the Netherlands and this was believed to have been due to animal feed that was contaminated with potato byproducts.

I have written before about having an effective product recall procedure in place and the interaction between food safety and brand equity. Food safety incidents, such as this one, require an effective, co-ordinated response in order to maintain customer confidence.