"The damage that has been caused is immense, not only financially but also when it comes to consumer trust ... This is a scandal, as consumers who expect safe food were duped," Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said in Berlin.

"This incident must and will have consequences."

Germany last week banned some 4,700 of its 375,000 farms from selling their products and as of Monday 558 farms were still subject to restrictions, an agriculture ministry spokesman said.

"The authorities expect this trend to continue and for the number of farms closed to fall significantly in the coming days," Holger Eichele told a regular government briefing.

"However, no (complete) all-clear can be given until all test results are on the table."

Police last week raided a northern German firm suspected of knowingly supplying up to 3,000 tonnes of fatty acids meant for industrial use with high levels of potentially carcinogenic dioxins to some 25 animal feed makers.

These 25 companies then delivered reportedly up to 150,000 tonnes of contaminated feed to thousands of farms -- mostly those producing eggs and rearing poultry and pigs -- across large parts of Germany.

The government has said there was no immediate risk to public health.

Around 100,000 eggs were destroyed and farms banned from selling their products, as South Korea suspended imports of German pork and Slovakia halted sales of German eggs and poultry meat.

"We are in talks with (South) Korea in order to convince the authorities there of the effectiveness of the measures. We are making clear that at no point did German exports pose any health risk," Eichele said.

The European Commission meanwhile reiterated Monday that import bans were disproportionate but said that farms where contamination is confirmed still had to slaughter all their animals in order to restore trust.

"When a farm is contaminated with dioxin, all animals have to be destroyed. This is what has happened and will continue to happen," Frederic Vincent, spokesman for Health Commissioner John Dalli, told reporters in Brussels.

Tests so far have found only three hens with dioxin levels above the norm, the agriculture ministry says. However, poultry, pork and dairy products still needed to be tested.

Slovakian Agriculture Minister Zsolt Simon said that the ban on sales there remained in place, pending the results of tests expected on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.

Aigner has vowed to crack down hard on those behind the contamination and on Monday met with feed suppliers and farmers' associations to discuss the way forward.

"I expect them not only to contribute actively to clearing up what happened, but also that they put concrete proposals on the table on how to avoid cases like this in future," she told reporters.

Measures could include wider monitoring of the industry, doing more to ensure that production of ingredients for feed and industrial uses is kept separate and tougher penalties, the minister said.

She said that she would meet with agriculture ministers from Germany's 16 states on January 18.

Global fears rise over German meat
Berlin (AFP) Jan 8, 2011 - Global fears mounted on Saturday over the safety of German meat due to contaminated animal feed, with South Korea banning pork imports and Slovakia suspending poultry sales.

As the European Union insisted there was no need for a ban, Germany moved to calm the concerns over food safety with test results showing acceptable levels of dioxin, a potentially cancer-causing chemical compound, in poultry and meat.

The European Commission said South Korea had become the first country to suspend imports of German pork and accused Seoul of overreacting.

"It is a decision which is out of proportion as to what is going on in Germany, but we are going to try to talk with the South Koreans to reassure them," said Frederic Vincent, spokesman for European health commissioner John Dalli.

Brussels does not consider there are grounds for declaring a ban on exports of German meat or other products from Germany "because the farms have been closed and farm products which have been delivered are blocked, awaiting analysis," Vincent said.

Slovakia became the first EU country to impose restrictions on German meat, after it suspended sales of poultry meat and eggs while it conducted tests to assess dioxin levels.

"The agriculture ministry has ordered checks in shops and warehouses in response to the discovery of dioxins in certain foods," the Slovak ministry said in a statement.

"Pending the results of laboratory tests, the sale of eggs and poultry imported from Germany will be temporarily suspended," it said.

Russia's agriculture watchdog said it had stepped up controls on food of animal origin from Germany and also from other EU countries although it did not specify which ones fell under the tougher regime.

The watchdog also warned that Russia could ban meat imports if it did not receive official information on the situation.

"The European Union still lacks a system to react urgently to cases that could be dangerous for animals and humans," the watchdog's spokesman Alexei Alexeyenko told the Interfax news agency.

Germany shut down 4,700 farms to check for dangerous levels of dioxin and destroyed more than 100,000 eggs.

By Saturday, around 500 dairy farms had been reopened in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, and more would be reopened through the weekend, Germany's agricultural confederation said in a statement.

The firm at the centre of the crisis, Harles und Jentzsch in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, is alleged to have supplied up to 3,000 tonnes of contaminated fatty acids meant only for industrial use to around 25 animal feed makers.

Most of this -- 2,500 tonnes -- was delivered in November and December to animal feed producers in Lower Saxony, where it was used in fodder.

The German agriculture ministry moved to curb fears of contaminated food supplies by announcing that three tests in abattoirs of poultry due to be distributed showed dioxin levels that were "well below the authorised limit".

Six other tests on pork showed dioxin levels were in line with acceptable levels, it said.

Pressure mounted on Harles und Jentzsch, which has been accused of fraud and tax evasion in addition to possibly breaking health regulations.

"Lots of things lead us to think that the company cheated its clients and transformed fatty acids into low-quality feed for livestock," an agriculture ministry spokesman in Lower Saxony told a local newspaper.

The crisis moved swiftly beyond Germany's borders, with some 136,000 eggs from a suspect German farm exported at the beginning of December to the Netherlands and the European Commission saying tainted eggs may also have been imported to Britain.

The Netherlands and Britain have both played down the public health risk.

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