Probe continues into factory at centre of dioxin feed alert

• Police guard the Harles Und Jentzsch plant, said to have supplied suspect ingredients to 25 animal feed manufacturers Picture: Getty

Outside the Harles Und Jentzsch plant in Uetersen near Hamburg, chief executive Siegfried Sievert's supercharged Maserati could be seen, while a light burned in his office.

Over the previous 48 hours, police had removed more than 500 files from Mr Sievert's office and other buildings at the plant, built on flatlands outside of the busy north German port city.

They are investigating the contamination of feed sent to pig and chicken farms, which has prompted the German government to close 4,700 farms across the country.

It emerged yesterday that the contamination - with dioxin, a cancer-inducing toxin that can affect the unborn - was much higher than first feared. The plant is said to have supplied 25 feed manufacturers with contaminated material.

However, Europe's health officials continued to stress there was little danger to public health, even though the feed was sold on with 77 times the accepted safe limit of dioxins for humans. On Thursday it was said to be "only" ten times as much.

Earlier yesterday, workers at the plant were sent home after a suspicious package was found. It merited the call out of the bomb squad from nearby Hamburg. The package was found to contain only a rotten sausage.

"We do not know where the dioxins came from, we are co-operating closely with the authorities," was the only statement Mr Sievert was prepared to make.

He was also unwilling to explain why, after dioxins were found in feed back in March last year, nothing had been done to alert either the authorities or the general public.

In other words, thousands more tons of contaminated feed left the plant in the past nine months to enter the European food chain. Tracking where it went and where it ended up is now tying up prosecutor's offices across Germany.

As well as the farm shutdown, thousands of hens have been culled in eight German states to try to keep contaminated meat off supermarket shelves.

Despite frightening headlines in the media, however, German consumers have remained calm.

Only 4 per cent of people polled by state broadcaster ARD said they had stopped eating eggs, while two thirds said they saw no reason to change their eating or shopping habits. Harles Und Jentzsch is one of the major employees in the rural area 25 miles from Hamburg, employing close to 300 people. Its website boasts; "The modern plant, Quality Assurance System, constantly expanding tank capacities and favourable situation regarding transport facilities guarantee that the production is economic, reliable and punctual."

So how did it become unreliable? One worker who left the factory on Friday told The Scotsman; "I work in chemical analysis, not mixing, but my guess is that this was an accident waiting to happen.

"Profits drive everything; as food is produced on an industrial scale, industrial chemicals are used more and more.

"Somewhere, don't ask me where, someone got hold of the wrong containers, stored them in the wrong place and added them to the wrong mixtures.

"As long as industrial-scale food production methods continue there will be a risk of such contamination.

"There is a witch-hunt hysteria abroad in Germany now and I fear that prosecutors want to make an example of someone and it will be this company."

The worker added: "We don't know what Monday will bring."

Contamination trail:

The contamination scandal centres around fat produced at Harles Und Jentzsch for livestock feed pellets.

Test results released yesterday on the fat showed some contained more than 77 times the approved amount of dioxin. Out of 30 samples tested, 18 contained more dioxin than permitted.

Dioxins are contaminants that typically result from industrial combustion. Exposure at high levels is linked to an increased incidence of cancer.

Authorities believe 150,000 tons of feed pellets for hens and pigs may contain the contaminated fat. The scandal broke after random tests revealed high dioxin levels in eggs from chickens in the west of the country earlier this week.