BERLIN – The German government announced on Jan. 14 facilities in Germany making feed fats for animal feed will no longer be able to also produce vegetable fats, according to the Financial Times. In addition to separating nutritional and industrial fats, a 10-point plan by Germany’s federal government will force feed producers to register with authorities and regularly submit the results of tests to check ingredients.

This move was made three weeks after dioxin was found in animal feed, which forced authorities to temporarily ban food shipments from 5,000 farms; most of them are now back up and running again.


Dioxin entered the food chain after a feed-producer allegedly mixed contaminated industrial fat residues with other vegetable fats. Approximately 3,000 tonnes of polluted fats were used to make up to 150,000 tonnes of feed, the German government estimates.

Prosecutors are now probing whether feed producer Harles & Jentzsch was criminally negligent by knowingly using contaminated fat. The company, which has filed for insolvency, claimed the dioxin got into its products by accident.