The Dutch food safety board has ordered a 7,000 kilo consignment of beef to be withdrawn from the market because it may be contaminated with anthrax.

Anthrax has been found in two cows from a Slovakian farmer who supplied the abattoir after the meat arrived in the Netherlands.

The NVWA said it does not yet know if the meat, which comes via a Polish slaughterhouse, has already reached the supermarket shelves, news agency ANP reports. However, there is only a very small chance the meat is contaminated and that people could become ill, the food safety body said.

The meat has been delivered to 19 companies in the Netherlands and 26 elsewhere.