Financial Impact of a Dioxin Incident in the Dutch Dairy Chain

Abstract

The aim of this study was to quantify the financial consequences of a milk-dioxin crisis on the stages of the dairy chain involved. The milk dioxin contamination impact model was designed for this purpose and also was used to estimate the net costs of control measures limiting the impact. Results obtained based on the assumption of the worst-case scenario in which the entire daily production of each business unit from feed supplier to milk processor is contaminated suggested that the financial impact of one dioxin incident would be €141.2 million. Another assumption was that the dioxin contamination started at one feed processing plant and was detected 2 weeks after initial contamination (the high-risk period), which would result in the involvement of 714 dairy farms, 26 milk processors, and 2,664 retailers. The stages of the chain that contributed most to the total net costs were the milk processor (76.9%) and the dairy farm (20.5%). If the high-risk period were shorter, i.e., 3 days, the estimated total financial impact decreases to €10.9 million. Thus, early detection of the contamination is crucial for decreasing the number of food businesses involved and lowering the total financial impact. The most influential inputs of the model were the sale price of milk at the processing stage, the daily amount of milk processed per processing plant, the farm-blocking period, and the daily amount of milk produced per farm. However, the effect of these inputs on the total financial impact was less than 10.0%. These results can be used to establish priorities in the application of control measures to limit the financial and public health impacts of a possible food safety incident.

Constitutive expression of the AHR signaling pathway in a bovine mammary epithelial cell line and modulation by dioxin-like PCB and other AHR ligands

“…To protect human health, maximum limits for dioxins and the sum of dioxins and DL-PCBs (toxic equivalent, TEQ) in foodstuffs have been laid down in an annex of the Commission Regulation (EU) 1881/2006; based on new occurrence data, limits have been recently lowered by the Commission Regulation (EU) 1259/2011 for certain food commodities, including "food for infant and young children". In fact, although a general decrease in the degree of food contamination has been noticed over the last decade in Europe, a number of field outbreaks of dioxin contamination of dairy herds have occurred in recent years not only in Italy (Girolami et al, 2013;Perucatti et al, 2006), but also in France (ANSES, 2012) and in The Netherlands (Lascano Alcoser et al, 2011). This is of particular concern as raw milk and dairy products represent the major contributors to total exposure to DL-compounds in toddlers and children (EFSA, 2012;Rauscher-Gabernig et al, 2013Rauscher-Gabernig et al, 2013.…”

Effects of climate change on food safety hazards in the dairy production chain

“…For instance, during the past five decades a number of dioxin-related incidents have occurred in the feed and food chain, the main source being the use of contaminated feed ingredients (Huwe & Smith, 2005;Lascano Alcoser, Velthuis, Hoogenboom, & Van der Fels-Klerx, 2011). In 1998, milk in the Netherlands and Germany was contaminated by dioxin due to contaminated citrus pulp (imported from Brazil) as a feed ingredient for ruminant feed (Hoogenboom et al, 2004).…”

Optimizing bulk milk dioxin monitoring based on costs and effectiveness

“…Dioxins and dl-PCB are a potential threat to human health because of their toxicity at very low levels, their stability in the environment (WHO, 2007), and their bioaccumulation and biomagnification along food chains (Huwe, 2002;Schmid et al, 2002). If elevated levels are detected in food, dioxins may lead to extensive financial losses for food and feed businesses due to mitigation strategies and reduced sales (Velthuis et al, 2009;Lascano Alcoser et al, 2011).…”

“…Consequently, milk dioxin incidents may have a potential salient effect to human health. Additionally, the dairy chains in different countries have been one of the food chains repeatedly involved in dioxin incidents (e.g., Belgian crisis in 1999, Dutch incident in 2004), with salient potential financial effect to the involved farms and firms along the chain (Lascano Alcoser et al, 2011). In this study, the cost and effectiveness of bulk milk dioxin monitoring at milk trucks were estimated with the objective of optimizing the sampling and pooling monitoring strategies aiming at detecting a dioxin incident.…”