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Plastic in meat, blood and milk of farm animals, show sample
Around 80 percent of the meat and dairy products from farm animals tested by scientists contain microplastics, according to a sample carried out by the VU University in Amsterdam on behalf of the Plastic Soup Foundation. Plastic was found in meat, blood and milk from cows and pigs. This may be due to plastic in the animals' feed: all twelve samples of feed pellets and shredded feed appeared to contain plastic. No plastic was found in the fresh food. Seven of the eight beef samples tested were found to contain plastic particles, and five of the eight pork samples contained at least one type of plastic. Plastic was found in 18 of the 25 milk samples tested. Small amounts of at least three types of plastic were also found in the blood of all the animals studied: twelve cows and twelve pigs. US
Questions to the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport about the discovery of plastic in animal feed, milk and meat.
1. Have you seen that at a research by the VU University Amsterdam in 80% of the samples of milk, meat, animal feed and blood samples examined were found to have microplastics? [1]
2. What is your reaction to the fact that seven out of eight beef samples tested were found to contain plastic particles and eighteen of the 25 milk samples tested were found to have plastic ones?
3. How do you rate the statement that the discovery of plastic in animal products is due to the presence of plastic in animal feed, since plastic was recovered in all samples of feed pellets and shredded feed? What other possible routes of pollution do you see?
4. Can you confirm that the presence of plastic in animal feed is caused by “residual flows” of overdue food, such as cookies, chocolate and sauces from supermarkets, sometimes with packaging and already processed into animal feed?
5. What does the presence of plastic particles in animal feed mean for animal health?
6. Do you rule out that there are health risks for humans or animals here? If so, how?
7. Can you confirm that the presence of (residues of) packaging material in animal feed and raw materials is prohibited according to Regulation (EC) 2014/217?
8. Can you confirm that the NVWA nevertheless only takes measures if the packaging material in feed materials is more than 015% (weight percentage)?
9. What is this percentage based on, what concentration of permissible microplastics is included and on the basis of which that concentration was considered harmless to public health?
10. How is it checked for the presence of (residues of) packaging material in animal feed? How often has the NVWA checked or had batches of food residues checked in the past five years? How many times was a party rejected by exceeding and how often has a fine been imposed for this?
11. Is the research by the VU University Amsterdam reason for you to have a risk assessment carried out again, which explicitly includes the fact that microplastics are found in meat, blood and milk? If not, why not?
12. Is the research reason for you to have additional checks carried out on plastic in animal feed and further down the chain? If not, why not?
13. When you are committed to processing residual flows from the food industry into animal feed, take into account pollution from plastic packaging? If so, what effects of plastic pollution do you take into account and what considerations do you make here?
14. Can you confirm that there is a lower limit for plastic contamination, for example 2 mm, just like in compost and digestate?
15. Do you acknowledge that, because of this lower limit, contamination with microplastics smaller than 2 mm by definition remains out of the picture, while scientists point out that the potential (health) hazards of microplastics increase as they are smaller?
16. What measures are you considering to prevent micro- and nanoplastics from ending up in animal feed?
17. Do you think consumers are aware of the presence of plastic in animal products offered in the supermarket? Are you willing to actively inform consumers about this? If not, why not?
18. Are you willing to bring Dutch policy into line with the European ban, so that a percentage of residues of packaging material in animal feed is no longer tolerated? If not, why not?
19. Can you answer these questions one by one?
