In the Netherlands the National Inspection Service for Livestock and Meat draws up the National Plan on Hormones and Other Substances on behalf of the government. The plan describes how the monitoring of livestock and meat for residues is to be performed in the coming year. Each Member State of the EU is required to draw up such a monitoring plan. The plans must be approved by Brussels and the results from the monitoring of the past year must be reported to Brussels.

In the Netherlands about 0.5 percent of all animals slaughtered are examined for traces of antibiotics, using the new Dutch kidney test. This test measures an effect, such as the inhibition of bacterial growth. The test can demonstrate that bacteria growth inhibitors are present in a sample, but can not identify the specific chemical responsible for the inhibition. The proportion of animals that test positive with this test has been stable for some years at about 0.2 percent.

Action limits’ have been set for substances for which no residue limits have been set in the law, to be able to decide whether the result of a residue analysis should be regarded as positive or negative. The action limits for natural hormones depend on the age and gender of the animal.

The ß-agonist clenbuterol and comparable substances such as cimaterol and salbutamol cause a shift from the production of fat to the production of muscle tissue in calves and other animals. The substances are not without danger for humans.

The analysis of meat for environmental contaminants focuses on substances such as polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and a number of organochlorine substances, such as lindane and dieldrin/aldrin. These substances are known to be able to accumulate in the food chain. As in previous years, there were no violations of the limits set in the Commodity Act or the Pesticide Act. A certain percentage of the fat samples had a positive test result, the percentages differing per species. It is especially hexachlorobenzene and to a lesser extent lindane that are found now and then.

A lot of attention is given in the National Plan to traces of antibiotics. There is a risk, with long-term use of antibiotics, that the bacteria causing a disease may become resistant to the antibiotic. So the excessive preventative use of antibiotics has been condemned nationally and internationally. Every country in the EU is required to check 0.1 percent of slaughtered animals for the presence of bacterial growth inhibitors, such as antibiotics and sulphonamides.

In the Netherlands milk and dairy products are important agricultural products, both because of the volume of production and exports, and because of their high nutritional value. Milk and cheese have the image of being tasty and healthy, and their production has a natural image. But having a traditional image does not mean that nothing is happening in the dairy sector. In fact this segment of agribusiness is very active in developing new consumer products. In doing so the sector is responding to the wishes of the modern consumer, who appreciates convenience food and a varied and healthy diet. Because of this trend the added value of dairy products is rising, even though the volume of milk production is almost constant.

Government policy aims mainly at preventing and controlling the contamination of foodstuffs. By subjecting veterinary drugs and pesticides to strict authorisation requirements, undesirable residue accumulation in dairy products is minimised. Dairy cows can for example be exposed to traces of pesticides via the raw materials used in animal feeds, if these chemicals are used to treat the crop. When authorising these pesticides the possibility that they may end up in milk is taken into consideration.

The Dutch dairy industry continually monitors the purity and safety of milk and dairy products, taking account of a large number of risk factors. The Quality Programme for Agricultural Products (KAP) deals only with the residues and contaminants covered by the dairy industry’s monitoring programmes: organochlorine chemicals, PCBs and aflatoxin.