NR AOJT
AU anonym
TI French wine seized for oxblood checks
QU Reuters North America, Donnerstag, 24. Juni 1999
PT Nachrichtenagenturmeldung
VT
PARIS - French health inspectors have seized 66,000 litres of Rhone Valley wine that may have been treated with oxblood powder, banned in the European Union since the 1997 mad cow disease scare, officials said on Thursday.
Gerard Bedos, head of the state regional consumer watchdog in Marseille, said inspectors seized the wine and 220 kg (480 lb) of powdered oxblood in the region around Avignon earlier this month. Bedos told the newspaper France-Soir the wine was being tested to determine whether it had been treated with oxblood.
He made it clear that the wine was labelled as lesser-quality VDQS table wine and not the renowned Cotes-du-Rhone wine which bears the high-quality AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controlee) label. Dried oxblood was routinely used to purify wine until the EU banned it two years ago in a health scare over the cattle disease.
SP englisch