Hiding The Truth

The Federal Office for Meat Research in Kulmbach already discovered Nitrofen in turkey meat back in March. But it failed to pass this information on to the Agriculture Ministry.

A Ministry spokesman said the Kulmbach office was not legally required to relay the results to Berlin. "But it would have been expected," he added. The research authority, on the other hand, justified its decision. It assumed this was only a regional problem, said its head, Karl Honikel.

The baby food producer Hipp has accused official control authorities of pushing the responsibility for the Nitrofen discovery back and forth. Hipp found traces of Nitrofen in raw materials used to produce baby food already in January. The authorities had been informed, but simply passed the responsibility on to other offices, Hipp said.

But organic farmers are also to blame. Although several farms had discovered Nitrofen in chicken feed earlier this year, they kept this information to themselves. Renate Künast, Federal Minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, spoke of "a cover-up" in the organic farming sector.

The federal government is planning a crisis meeting with organic farming organizations later on Tuesday. It wants to avoid a massive loss of confidence in "bio" products. According to Künast, she wants to bring to light where the control chain failed.