Abstract

A preliminary investigation has been performed on dioxin levels in cow's milk (pasteurized and sterilized plain milk) and some milk products, which have been and are being imported from Belgium into the Netherlands. A limited number of samples, i.e. four samples of Belgian milk, one cream sample and two samples of butter which were randomly selected from some Dutch supermarkets, were collected on March 13th, 1990. For comparison reasons, a sample of Dutch consumption milk has also been analysed. None of the measured dioxin levels were found above the maximum allowable limit of 6 picogram of 2,3,7,8-TCDD-toxicity equivalents per gram of fat (pg TEQ/g of fat). The dioxin level of the Dutch milk sample was 2.1 +- 0.1 pg TEQ/g of fat. It should be considered that milk products are manufactured from large pools of raw milk from many different dairies at different locations in Belgium and may also include variable amounts of milk from dairies in the Netherlands. The dioxin level of one milk sample (4.1 +- 0.2 pg TEQ/g of fat), one butter sample (3.2 +- 0.2 pg TEQ/g of fat) and one cream sample ( 3.5 +- 0.2 pg TEQ/g of fat) appeared to be above the background level of 0.8 to 2.5 pg TEQ/g of fat, for Dutch cow's milk. A further investigation into the origin of the raw milk used by the Belgian manufactures is recommended.