Russia's chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko has called on Russians to eat only domestic food over the dioxin scandal in Germany.
Last week, German sanitary authorities discovered dangerous levels of dioxins in domestic livestock and bird feed, forcing Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor to strengthen monitoring of food products of animal origin imported from Germany and some other EU countries.
"Our recommendations to use domestic food for nutrition remain in force for Russians," Onishchenko said.
On Friday, the German authorities banned the sale of products from more than 4,700 farms because of fears eggs and meat may be contaminated with dioxins.
Experts have said the closure of farms and a ban on product sales may cost Germany about 100 million euros (over $129 million). Dioxin could have been contained in pesticides used to grow plants later processed into fodders.
The European Union says that although the dioxin levels in affected eggs are five times the legal level, a human would have to consume vast amounts of them for his health to be affected.
Earlier Onishchenko quoted the German Agriculture Ministry as saying it had not exported products believed to be contaminated with dioxins.
MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti)
