Navigation

Food gets clean bill of health

Pork is among the products declared free of dioxin. Keystone

A six-month investigation by the authorities has concluded that food products on the market in Switzerland do not contain excessively high levels of the chemical dioxin, which is thought to cause cancer.

This content was published on May 25, 2000 - 08:16

The Federal Health and Veterinary Offices said only four out of 116 samples tested contained amounts of dioxin exceeding tolerance levels. The higher, maximum permitted level was never exceeded.

The offices analysed milk and eggs, as well as chicken meat, veal, pork and beef.

The research was carried out following last year's scandal in Belgium, in which dioxin entered food products through contaminated animal feed. Samples taken at the time also found excessive dioxin levels in products on the market in Switzerland.

A spokesman for the health office said it was still waiting for the last results from its wider six-month investigation, but that the overall trend was clear.

swissinfo with agencies

In compliance with the JTI standards

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

Sort by

Change your password

Do you really want to delete your profile?

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.

Discover our weekly must-reads for free!

Sign up to get our top stories straight into your mailbox.

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.