Ministry considers tougher legislation on animal feed
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Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sirkka-Liisa Anttila (Centre) is considering whether or not Finnish salmonella enforcement should be upgraded, and if legislation on animal feed should be amended in the light of the recent outbreak of salmonella at the Raisio Feed Ltd. feed plant.
According to Anttila, it is first necessary to find out how the factory got contaminated.
The outbreak spread to many chicken and pig farms which used infected feed from Raisio.
The law on animal feed could be amended so that all soybean products imported for use in chicken and pig feed should be processed in such a way that they are clean of salmonella already before getting into production.
The Salmonella Tennessee bacteria is a familiar strain at feed farms.
Much of the soybean used as a source of protein in the feed is contaminated by salmonella. Even if the factory area is thoroughly cleaned, salmonella is difficult to get rid of.
Salmonella occurs commonly in nature, and causes occasional outbreaks of stomach disease in Finland as well. No salmonella has been found in Finnish eggs, however.
Finland is classified as a salmonella-free area in the European Union.
The recent outbreak does not change this, says Maria Teirikko of the Finnish Food Safety Authority (EVIRA).
She says that there have been no breaches of safety regulations at Raisio Feed that officials would need to react to.
Tierikko believes that Raisio Feed has done its best in monitoring for salmonella.
However, as imported raw materials are increasingly being used, players in the feed business and officials should jointly evaluate the development of legislation and monitoring from this point of view, she says.
The current infection has not spread to humans, but it did cause extensive damage at egg and pig farms.
So far, the salmonella infection has been detected in 31 egg farms and ten pork farms.
The animals at the infected farms were slaughtered, and the facilities themselves are being disinfected.
Raisio is compensating the costs from its insurance.
The infected feed was manufactured on production line seven at Raisio Feed, which produces about two per cent of all feed used in Finland.
Investigators are still trying to determine how the bacteria got into the feed.
It is possible that contaminated dust that has been lying in the structures of the production equipment may have been released in connection with construction work that took place in December.
Matti Aho, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, says that salmonella is eliminated if the feed is heated sufficiently during production.
At the Raisio plant, the temperature was probably not raised high enough.
Raisio CEO Matti Rihko says that the constant pressure caused by the risk of salmonella applies to the entire animal feed industry. “We perform twice as many salmonella tests as are required.”
“Salmonella constantly comes to the factory with foreign feed. We try to stop it at the source. Salmonella has never reached our production lines before, but now it happened, unfortunately.”
According to Rihko, salmonella was found seven times in the surroundings of the Raisio feed plant, and the contaminated areas were cleaned each time.
More on this subject:
 Raisio Feed Ltd. denies negligence over salmonella outbreak
Helsingin Sanomat
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