Waste sugar water the source of EU food scare?

Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday said "serious errors" at an Irish plant had allowed a banned growth hormone to taint pig feed in Europe's latest food scare.

Outlining the results of its preliminary enquiry, the EPA said waste water containing the MPA hormone from a plant owned by US drugmaker Wyeth had been incorrectly labelled as "green" before being shipped to a Belgian reprocessing plant.

"It is clear... that waste sugar solution... originating on the Wyeth Medica site in Newbridge, County Kildare... was incorrectly labelled as 'green list' waste and shipped under this classification to Bioland, the firm at the centre of the investigation into pig feed contamination,"​ the EPA said.

Feed tainted with MPA, which scientists believe can cause infertility in humans, has been uncovered at thousands of farms across Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Under European Union rules, waste exports are classified as "green", "amber" or "red". Only the latter two classifications require the notification of relevant national authorities.

The agency said it had not been notified that Wyeth was exporting waste containing MPA through Dublin-based waste brokerage service Cara Environmental Technology.

"This would appear to be in breach of (Wyeth's) Integrated Pollution Control licence,"​ the EPA said.

In a statement, Wyeth said it would continue to co-operate with the investigation.

"As soon as Wyeth Medica Ireland was contacted by the Department of Agriculture, it immediately ceased sending waste to Bioland through Cara,"​it said.

A Cara spokesman said the company was co-operating fully with the investigation and had "followed the letter of the law" regarding the shipments.

Last week Ireland said it was halting shipments from Wyeth and launching an investigation after identifying the plant, southwest of Dublin, as the source of the contamination.

Waste sugar water which was used by Wyeth to coat hormone pills was shipped to Bioland, a now-bankrupt Belgian reprocessing plant. Bioland in turn provided glucose syrup as raw materials to Dutch feed makers.