WRITTEN QUESTION E-2558/01 by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Health risks resulting from a lack of checks on butterfat.
Date: 2001-09-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European standard, Italy, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, butter, food contamination, fraud, quality standard, traceability

C 115 E/116

Official Journal of the European Communities

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16.5.2002

Nevertheless, while the Member States have full responsibility for the content of teaching, it is clear that
the achievements of European integration, as mentioned by the Honourable Member, deserve to be given a
high profile using all possible means, including education. Moreover, Socrates, the European programme
for cooperation in education,
is helping to develop a European dimension via its actions in school
education.

(2002/C 115 E/119)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2558/01

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(20 September 2001)

Subject: Health risks resulting from a lack of checks on butterfat

Up until the middle of 2000, members of the Italian Mafia were conducting a large-scale operation
involving adulterating butter by adding to it animal and vegetable fats and chemical substances and
marketing it through Belgian, German, French and Italian companies. Overall, some 100 000 tonnes of
adulterated butter is thought to have been produced, and used mainly in the manufacture of pastry
products. According to the Italian public prosecutor’s office (press release of 5 July 2000), consumers have,
as a result, been exposed to health risks. Records of interrogations and electronic surveillance records
published by the French journal
those
adulterating the butter were clearly aware of the health risks involved.

in its issue of 7 December 2000 suggest

‘L’Expansion’

that

In reply to a question from me, the German Minister for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture
confirmed in a letter of 17 August 2001 that it is possible to detect the addition of non-milk fats to butter
and butterfat by means of analysis, but that Community law does not lay down official tests of this kind in
the case of all measures for the disposal of butter using EU funds.

1. Why did the Commission omit to mention this fact as recently as in March 2001, despite being
asked a relevant question, in its replies to the questionnaire submitted by the Committee on Budgetary
Control in relation to the Fléchard case?

Given the lack of checks,

2.
manufactured and marketed today?

is there not a substantial risk that adulterated butter may still be

3. What steps has the Commission taken to improve checks?

4. Would it not be best to completely prohibit the manufacture of lower quality butterfat, or at least to
abolish the financial assistance currently granted for such products?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(26 November 2001)

1.
The Commission has provided all available information in its answers to Written Questions
E-3240/00 (1), E-3241/00 (2), P-3478/00 (1), P-1506/01 (3) and E-2210/01 (4) and in the answer to the
questionnaire on the Fléchard case addressed to the Commission by the European Parliament Committee
on Budgetary Control. The Commission cannot identify the question which the Honourable Member
claims is still outstanding.

The Honourable Member mentions a quantity of
Commission does not know the source of this figure and is not in a position to confirm it.

‘some 100 000 tonnes of adulterated butter’. The

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C 115 E/117

The issue of controls raised by the Honourable Member calls for a distinction to be made
2. and 3.
between checks on the composition of oils and fats under the market regulations, health controls and the
more general issue of the traceability of food products.

(a) As regards checks on composition, Community rules concerning official tests to detect non-milk fats
in milk-fat were laid down in an annex to Commission Regulation (EC) No 454/95 (5) and have since
been incorporated into Annex XXV to Commission Regulation (EC) No 213/2001 (6) laying down
detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1255/1999 (7) as regards methods for
the analysis and quality evaluation of milk and milk products.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2991/94 (8) lays down standards for yellow fats.

It states that products can be marketed under the sales description ‘butter’ only where they meet the
following conditions:

F they must be derived exclusively from milk and/or milk products. Other substances necessary for
their manufacture may, however, be added, provided that such substances are not used for the
purpose of replacing, either in whole or in part, any milk constituents;

F they must have a milk-fat content of not less than 80 % but less than 90 %, a maximum water

content of 16 % and a maximum dry non-fat milk-material content of 2 %.

That Regulation does not, therefore,
lay down health and hygiene standards as the Honourable
Member assumes; the analyses that it gives rise to, however, do constitute the only means of detecting
adulteration.

(b) Health inspections of milk used as the raw material for butter fall mainly into two types. The first
covers inspections under Council Directive 96/23/EC of 29 April 1996 on measures to monitor
certain substances and residues thereof in live animals and animal products (9) and provides an
assurance as to the absence of prohibited substances (hormones, beta-agonists, etc.), compliance with
limits on residues of veterinary medicinal products and certain contaminants (heavy metals, pesticides,
organochlorine compounds, etc.). Inspections of the second type supplement health monitoring of
products: this involves microbiological examinations conducted pursuant to Council Directive 92/46/
EEC (10) on health rules for the production and placing on the market of milk and milk products. In
both cases, according to the legislation mentioned such health controls concern the detection of
specific substances and microbes only and relate mainly to raw material obtained from milk
production. They are not designed for detecting adulteration of the sort established in the adulterated
butter case.

(c) As regards the traceability of products, the Commission has set out its position in the White Paper on

Food Safety and in its answers to previous questions from the Honourable Member.

According to the Commission’s information, the network held responsible in the case in point stopped
operating after last year’s arrests in Italy.

4.
Only first-grade butter covered by Article 6 of basic Regulation (EC) No 1255/1999 is eligible for
public intervention and aid for private storage. A product F which should be described as a ‘blend’ in
accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2991/94 F obtained by adding non-milk fat to butter or concentrated
butter is clearly not eligible for Community public or private storage schemes and cannot be marketed for
normal consumption under the sales description ‘butter’. If it were described as ‘butter’, adulteration would
clearly be involved. The Commission is of the opinion that the manufacture of lower-quality butter cannot
be prohibited as long as the standards on quality and marking referred to are complied with.

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16.5.2002

lower-quality butterfat does not meet

the criteria laid down in Article 1(2)(a) and (b) of
However,
Regulation (EC) No 2571/97 (11) (scheme for pastry and ice-cream) and is therefore not eligible for aid
under this Regulation either.

(1) OJ C 174 E, 19.6.2001, p. 28.
(2) OJ C 151 E, 22.5.2001.
(3) OJ C 318 E, 13.11.2001, p. 244.
(4) OJ C 40 E, 14.2.2002, p. 219.
(5) OJ L 46, 1.3.1995.
(6) OJ L 37, 7.2.2001.
(7) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.
(8) OJ L 316, 9.12.1994.
(9) OJ L 125, 23.5.1996.
(10) OJ L 268, 14.9.1992.
(11) OJ L 350, 20.12.1997.

(2002/C 115 E/120)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2559/01

by María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) to the Commission

(20 September 2001)

Subject: EU’s contribution to the problem of waiting lists in national health systems

The Commission has just made a number of fitting statements in support of the United Kingdom initiative
to send patients to other Community countries in order to reduce waiting lists. However, the problem of
waiting lists is widespread throughout the EU, as can be seen from the situation in Spain, where a number
of people have died after long waiting lists prevented them from undergoing operations in time.

I drew the Commission’s attention to the seriousness of
this problem in my Written Question
E-2415/00 (1), which Mr Byrne answered on 25 September 2000. In his answer, the Commissioner cited
the lack of a Community mandate for health matters pursuant to Article 152 of the Treaty and added that
Commission action to help to mitigate the problem of waiting lists would be taken as part of the
Community action programme in the field of public health.

Bearing in mind the substance of the judgment of the Court of Justice in Case-157/99, which recognises
that patients have a right to seek treatment in other countries if systems in their place of origin are
overloaded, would the Commission be prepared to propose an initiative geared to Community
coordination in order to solve the problem of waiting lists through a recommendation addressed to the
Member States?

What specific measures will the Commission take as part of the Community action programme to
promote the exchange of patients between Community countries?

(1) OJ C 89 E, 20.3.2001, p. 195.

(2002/C 115 E/121)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2586/01

by Juan Naranjo Escobar (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(25 September 2001)

Subject: Community provisions to facilitate the movement of patients to help cut waiting-lists

The British National Health Service intends to pay for surgery and treatment in other Member States in
order to cut its waiting-lists but will not be able to do so until the relevant British law has been amended.