Legal proceedings have been launched by the Commission against the Belgian government

Date: 24/06/1999

over its handling of the dioxin-in-food crisis. Belgium is accused of failing to notify other member states immediately once the cancer-causing chemical was discovered in animal feed. The delay made the problem harder to tackle because potentially contaminated food was distributed more widely before other countries could impound the suspect products. Belgium also failed to comply fully with an order to remove and destroy foodstuffs. The scare spread this week after it emerged that the Belgian firm at the centre of the probe into the source of the poisoning had exported products to Spain.