International criminal investigations have been launched after traces of a banned growth hormone were found at two soft drinks factories.

The hormone, MPA, could have been in glucose syrup sold by the bankrupt sugar waste processor Bioland, based in Belgium.

MPA is a suspected cause of infertility and was found at two soft drinks factories which sell to Germany and the Netherlands, according to European food safety standards authorities.

The hormone has also been found in pig feed used by 355 Dutch farms, and in feed shipped back to Belgium and to Germany, they said.

The glucose syrup was also supplied to Dutch and German food companies and may have been supplied to European breweries as well.

The European Commission has urged other member states to check whether Bioland supplied firms in their countries.

Eight EU countries are testing foodstuffs and pig herds for the presence of the hormone.

One of the two Dutch brothers who own Bioland has been arrested in Belgium and charged with breaches of hormone laws.

Police are continuing a search for the other man.

Deliberate or accidental?

The Belgian authorities want to find out whether the hormone, which is believed to have been part of a shipment of medical waste from Ireland, was deliberately mixed into the glucose syrup.

The Dutch investigators want to find out whether the farmers and feed producers added the hormone to the pig feed on purpose since MPA is believed to boost a pig's weight.

Two soft drinks firms used Bioland's glucose syrup

The Irish authorities have also launched an investigation and other European Union (EU) member states have followed suit since pigs fed with the contaminated feed have been exported to Belgium, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.

There is also a slight risk of contamination in Britain and Luxembourg.

Meanwhile, Belgian authorities have criticised the Irish for their failure to inform them of the medical waste shipments.

Bioland had been cleared to process sugar waste but not to process medical waste and not to supply the animal fodder industry.

Bioland's glucose syrup was up to 30% cheaper than that of its competitors because the company used wheat as a raw material while Bioland used waste residue from sugar products.

Bioland shipped the contaminated syrup between a year and nine months ago.

Quarantine

The Dutch have been told by the European Union to seal off farms and feed producers which appear to have been contaminated.

"The Netherlands has to make sure that they block all farms and feed producers potentially involved in the incident," EU food safety experts said following an emergency meeting.

A leading Dutch farmers union has said it will sue Bioland for damages on behalf of pig farmers affected by the quarantine.

The hormone MPA, or Medroxyprogesterone-acetate, is banned in the EU where an order has gone out to destroy all products that contain it.

In Australia, New Zealand and the US it is used in birth control pills and in hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women.