With food safety in mind, the agency is also responsible for combating animal and plant diseases.

[2] It was founded after the dioxin affair rocked Belgium in 1999, which was caused by the use of animal feed contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls.

Through the food chain, the toxic contamination made its way to supermarkets and consumers, inciting a nationwide scandal when it was discovered.

In June 2015, the producer, after having hesitated to engage in a showdown with the agency, declared that he had to definitively stop production, the continuation of his activity seeming to him to be impossible from now on.

In March 2016, the agency was criticized for having tried to modify its article on Wikipedia, in order to remove the mention of this case.