* Tougher controls likely after dioxin in animal feed
* Some tainted feed sent to Denmark
(Adds more farms cleared to resume work, tainted feed sold to Denmark)
By Eric Kelsey and Michael Hogan
BERLIN/HAMBURG, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Germany said on Monday improved food safety standards with tighter controls on animal feed suppliers should be examined after excessive levels of the highly toxic dioxin were found in some German feed.
Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said the government was looking into tightening regulations on feed suppliers after eggs from German farms where hens ate dioxin-tainted feed were found to be contaminated with the chemical. German authorities said some 3,000 tonnes of feed were involved. [ID:nLDE7080DY]
"There's no reason to panic but also no reason to relax yet either," Aigner told a news conference, adding: "The people who did this were irresponsible and unscrupulous."
German daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung carried an interview with Aigner in which she said: "It needs to be clarified whether companies that supply raw material for feed should face a stricter licensing process."
Aigner called a meeting on Monday of animal feed and farming associations to discuss the affair.
The animal feed industry must not only actively help to find the root causes of the contamination but must also make concrete proposals to prevent such events in future, she said.
SHUT DOWNS, CULLS
Operations at 4,700 German farms were shut down last week and thousands of hens culled in eight German states to try to prevent food supplies being contaminated by the tainted meal.
The origin of the contamination has been traced to a distributor of oils for animal feed production in north Germany.
The number of sealed-off farms has now been cut to 1,635 and that more were likely to be cleared to resume operations during the coming days, said a spokesman for Germany's federal Agriculture Minister.
The ministry spokesman described as speculation a claim by German food pressure group Foodwatch that the dioxin stemmed from pesticides.
Meanwhile, animal feed from Germany contaminated with dioxin was exported to Denmark to feed breeding hens, a spokesman for the European Union Commission said on Monday. [ID:nLDE7090KQ]
German prosecutors are investigating the possibility that a feed additives company, Harles und Jentzsch, distributed fatty acids meant for industrial use to animal feed processors.
Last week the Commission confirmed that eggs from German farms where the contaminated feed was used had been exported to the Netherlands, and some were subsequently processed and exported to Britain for human consumption. [ID:nLDE7051H1]
Dioxins are toxins formed by burning waste and through other industrial processes, which have been shown to contribute to increased cancer rates and to affect pregnant women.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan, Erik Kirschbaum and Eric Kelsey; editing by Keiron Henderson)
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