German authorities have stressed that there is no risk to consumers from feed contaminated with a dangerous toxin, which has been delivered to thousands of German dairy farms.

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Less than two years after the dioxin crisis led to the closure of almost 5,000 farms, animal feed contaminated with carcinogenic aflatoxin B1 has been delivered to farms in the state of Lower Saxony, resulting in recalls and restrictions on milk shipments.

On Friday, state authorities announced that feed maize contaminated with aflatoxin B1 had been delivered to over 4,400 farms in Lower Saxony alone. Aflatoxin B1 is a severely carcinogenic toxin produced by Aspergillus mould, which can develop on a number of types of grain, particularly in humid conditions.

The agricultural state of Lower Saxony was also seriously affected by the dioxin crisis in 2011. Pig and poultry feed produced by German company Harles and Jentszch was found to contain high levels of dioxin compounds. Strict feed testing regulations have uncovered sporadic cases of dioxin contamination in several German states since that time. Dioxin compounds are usually associated with industrial manufacture and burning rubbish.

The Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR) announced this week that it had traced contaminated feedstuffs to a shipment from Serbia. The Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection first discovered extensive contamination and recalled milk deliveries from thousands of farms on Friday.

Although officials assured that there is no risk to consumers as a result of this latest food safety hiccough, one ministry spokesperson said last week that the toxin's presence in milk presents most cause for concern. However, officials said testing of milk has revealed mostly low levels of contamination; they assured that, as contaminated milk which has entered the food supply chain will be mixed with milk from unaffected farms during processing, overall levels of aflatoxins will be within safe limits.

A statement from Lower Saxony's food and agriculture ministry revealed that toxins have been discovered at high levels in the muscles of animals given the feed, but suggested that there is no risk posed by eating meat or eggs from contaminated animals.  

Most of the 45,000 tonne shipment of contaminated grain has been accounted for and contained, authorities said; 10,000 tonnes have been held at the harbour where the shipment entered the country, and 25,000t have been located at a warehouse in Bremen.

This latest debacle has come at a bad time for the German food industry. The processed meat labelling scandal, which began in the UK and Ireland in January, has since spread to the country, where a number of farmers are also under investigation for mislabelling offences. 200 farmers are suspected of labelling eggs from caged chickens as organic. The various food scandals have combined to drive confidence levels amongst German consumers to new lows.

This year's Green Week exposition in Berlin saw 25,000 people take to the streets demand a transition to sustainable food production. The protestors rejected the expo's message and called for an end to food scandals and environmental degradation.