The NFU have urged European legislators to think carefully before approving new mycotoxin rules which could see around 16% of UK oats leaving the food chain.

The mycotoxins in question are produced by Fusarium langsethiae which appears in dry conditions, opposed to DON (deoxynivalenol), which tends to be assosociated with wet conditions.

Some EU member states are pushing to introduce unnecessarily low threshold levels for T2 and HT2 mycotoxins in cereals, says the NFU.

This is despite the European Food Safety Authority concluding there is no health risk at the current level from cereal grains in European diets, they continue.

Ian Backhouse, NFU combinable crops chairman and chairman of the Copa-Cogeca cereals working group, which represents all EU farming unions, told a high-level conference meeting in Brussels today that introducing new tolerance levels must be rejected

“At this time when we are being asked to produce more food to feed a growing population excluding around 16% of our oat crop from the food chain seems ludicrous,” he added.

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