The widening cancer scare in Belgium caused by dioxin-contaminated animal products is another clear warning that animal feeds can have a direct impact on the safety and quality of foods, FAO has warned. The Organization has produced a draft Code of Practice for Good Animal Feeding containing a series of steps that can help to prevent feed contamination problems. It covers good animal feeding practices and promotes good practices in the procurement, handling, manufacture, storage and distribution of commercially produced feeds for food-producing animals. Dioxins tend to be absorbed in animal and human fatty tissues and have been shown to cause cancer in several animal species. They are not produced commercially, but are formed as by-products in other industrial chemical production processes.
Dioxins are extremely resistant to chemical and biological cleanup processes.