Berlin (CNN) -- As the number of German farms closed because of possibly contaminated animal feed grew Friday, authorities said they had filed criminal charges against the company at the heart of the country's tainted egg scandal.
The company, Harles and Jentzsch, apparently knew for months that fatty acid it was delivering to animal-feed makers was
contaminated with dioxin, said Christian Seifert, a spokesman for the agricultural ministry in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein said.
Criminal charges have been filed against the company, Seifert said, "because they did not immediately inform" the agricultural ministry that dioxin levels surpassed the allowed amount.
Authorities allege that the company sold about 3,000 tons of contaminated fatty acids to dozens of companies making animal feed across Germany. The country's government has quarantined more than 4,700 pig and poultry farms.
Harles and Jentzsch laboratory tests from March 2010 showed they exceeded the ceiling level for dioxin, he said. CNN
