Christina Hvid, president of the Danish Meat Association, says that the country’s meat producers fear parliament’s efforts to stop imports of infected products might hurt the local industry and that EU countries might respond with trade bans of Danish products in turn.

Hvid said,"We don’t want Denmark to stop all imports of infected meat from other EU countries here and now. There is no need to risk major problems for our meat exports which total DKK 30 billion with more than 30,000 employees.”

Rather than an all-out ban, Hvid recommended using existing EU regulations that allow for extra tests if shipments of meat imports were suspected of being infected. Consumers also have the choice of ‘buying Danish’. “We’ve done what was needed to limit Salmonella in Danish-made meat. Consumers should be happy about that and buy Danish meat more often. Especially if they want to avoid Salmonella,” says Hvid.