September 6, 2017

Tainted eggs now in 40 countries, says EU

Eggs contaminated with the insecticide fipronil have now found their way into 40 countries including 24 of the 28 member states of the European Union, an EU official said, according to a report by the Associated Press.

EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis was quoted as saying Tuesday (Sept. 5) in Estonia that the four unaffected EU countries in the EU were Lithuania, Portugal, Cyprus and Croatia.

Earlier, Belgium had been accused of keeping the tainted-egg scandal under wraps despite originally learning as early as June about the problem involving fipronil, a substance used to treat red lice afflicting chickens and which is potentially dangerous to humans. Fipronil is banned from being used to treat food animals such as chickens into whose skin or feathers the substance is absorbed and then passed into the eggs.

The scandal broke out after Britain and France confirmed on Aug. 7 that some insecticide-tainted eggs might have entered their countries. The Netherlands initially culled some 300,000 chickens.

EU agriculture ministers meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, were to discuss Tuesday the egg scandal, Reuters said, citing a report from the German news agency DPA.

The DPA reported that contaminated eggs have also been discovered in non-EU states including the US, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.

The toxic substance is believed to have been introduced to poultry farms by Dutch firm Chickfriend to treat red lice. A Belgian company allegedly supplied the substance containing the insecticide.

Two Dutch men who ran the cleaning company Chickfriend were arrested in August.