Taiwan health authority has imposed a temporary ban on pork imports from the Netherlands over a dioxin scare there, according to a report reaching Hong Kong from Taipei on Sunday.

"Imports of pork and pig viscera from the Netherlands are suspended till the matter is clarified and sales of those already in are also banned," said a Taiwan health official.

The ban was imposed after suspected cases of pig and chicken dioxin poisoning were reported in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, he said.

Taiwan did not import chicken from the three countries and only imported pork from the Netherlands.

The three European countries have isolated over 650 farms suspected of using dioxin-contaminated feed made in Belgium, and the Netherlands has shut down some 260 farms.

A Belgian government food safety official said this week that faulty filters at a chemical plant caused abnormal levels of dioxin to reach animal feed, but stressed there was no immediate danger to human health.

Dioxin, a by-product of garbage burning and industrial activities, can cause a range of illnesses in human beings, including cancer, metabolism malfunction and miscarriages.

Source: Xinhua