Belgium's Tessenderlo - No Dioxin Compensation Yet
BELGIUM - Belgian chemical maker Tessenderlo said on Wednesday it was too early to discuss compensation for dioxin in animal feed because the investigation into the contamination was still open."Discussions about compensation and amicable settlements are premature as long as the various investigations are under way," it said in a statement.
"In our sector companies are of course insured against this sort of problem. The question is clearly how far our liability goes. This will be for our insurers to examine," it said.
Tessenderlo's stock fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday following news that dioxin found in Belgian feed came from one of its subsidiaries. It ended at 27.81 euros in Brussels.
Health officials have quarantined hundreds of farms in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands that received the tainted feed as they search for animals contaminated by the cancer-causing dioxin.
Last week, South Korea banned the import of pork from Belgium and the Netherlands.
Belgian food safety officials discovered the dioxin came from the use of an unfiltered ingredient to extract pig fat from the process of making gelatin at PB Gelatins, a Tessenderlo unit.
Source: Planet Ark