WRITTEN QUESTION E-2210/01

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(24 July 2001)

Subject: BSE risk from adulterated butter

Between 1995 and mid-2000 members of the Italian Mafia were adulterating butter on a large scale by adding animal and vegetable fats and chemical substances and selling it through Belgian, French and Italian companies. A total of at least 35 000 tonnes of this adulterated product were produced in Italy, and are said to have been extended by its purchasers by further admixture to over 100 000 tonnes and processed mainly in bakery products. Subsidies of probably over 100 m Euro were claimed from the Community budget for this purpose.

According to official details given by the Italian State Prosecutor's Office on 20 March 2001 the adulterated butter was produced using substantial quantities of fats produced by rendering plant from cattle brains, bones and intestines, i.e. specified risk material for the transmission of BSE.

1. Can the Commission explain why, in its annual Report for 2000 on the fight against fraud, published on 23 May 2001, it nevertheless claimed that experts had so far not established any direct hazard to consumers' health?

2. Why, in its answer of 6 June 2001 to my Written Question P-1506/01(1) did it give the impression of being unaware of the Italian State Prosecutor's Office's press statement of 20 March 2001?

3. Does the Commission still maintain its view that it acted correctly when, in summer 2000, it did not make public the first indications of a possible health hazard, and concealed the names of the companies which had processed the adulterated butter?

(1) OJ C 318 E, 13.11.2001, p. 244.

Answer by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(20 September 2001)

1. The Commission is closely monitoring developments in this matter, especially as regards public health protection. It is continuing to press the national authorities to inform it of the results of analyses of the adulterated butter. Although the Naples State Prosecutor's Office did point to the health risk at the time, no firm evidence was produced. The Commission had no information in the summer of 2000 - and has not received any to this day - that might enable it to assess the potential risk to public health. So far only the Belgian authorities have confirmed that no traces of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), organic chlorine compounds or heavy metals have been found in the samples. Given the information available when it published its annual report for 2000 on protection of the financial interests of the European Communities and the fight against fraud, it therefore ruled out a direct health threat to consumers.

As far as the admixture of risk material for the transmission of BSE is concerned, the Commission acknowledges that this can only be ruled out from 1 October 2000, as that is the date after which all risk material (skulls including brain and eyes, tonsils, spinal chord, spleen and ileum) have to be destroyed throughout the Community. The Commission would point out that it proposed this measure as early as 1997 but that the Council refused to adopt it until June 2000.

2. The date of the second press release from the Naples State Prosecutor's Office, to which the Commission referred in its answer to the Honourable Member's written question P-1506/01, is indeed 20 March 2001 (not December 2000).

3. The Commission maintains the view it set out in its answer to the Honourable Member's written question E-3241/00 on the non-disclosure of the names of the firms.