Food News! Much Ado About Contaminated Eggs in Europe!

Twenty tonnes of insecticide-tainted eggs have been reportedly sold in Denmark!

This is according to the country’s food safety authority.

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration in a statement declared that the boiled and peeled eggs were mainly sold to cafeterias, cafes and catering firms.

Denmark is said to be the latest European country to discover eggs contaminated with fipronil in its food chain.

Owing to this, two managers at a Dutch company have been arrested during joint raids by Dutch and Belgian authorities.

Prosecutors in the Netherlands revealed that company – named as Chickfriend by local media – allegedly used fipronil at poultry farms.

The BBC revealed that the eggs came mainly from the Netherlands with some originating in Belgium and Germany.

Reports say the insecticide can damage people’s kidneys, liver and thyroid glands if eaten in large quantities.

The Danish food administration has however enjoined the populace to be calm, saying the eggs bought by Danæg Products posed no risk to human consumption

Fact-file of Contaminated Eggs!

A very small number of eggs contaminated with a toxic insecticide reportedly reached the UK earlier this year.
Some of the eggs, which originated from the Netherlands, were found in France.
the country’s agricultural ministry, the UK’s Food Standards Agency confirmed this and asserted that the risk to the public is very low.
The agency however declared that urgent investigation would be conducted while stressing that there is no need for people in Britain to avoid eating eggs.
The revelations came after the supermarket chain Aldi withdrew all eggs from sale in its stores in Germany .
All these occurred last week.
Tests had shown that the chemical fipronil, which can harm kidneys, liver and thyroid glands, was found in the eggs.
It is feared that farmers in the Netherlands may now need to cull millions of birds as it seeks to eradicate traces of the insecticide from production.
On its website, the FSA said: the risk assessment, based on all the information available, indicates that there is no need for people to change the way they consume or cook eggs or products containing eggs.
Belgian officials also admitted that they knew in June that eggs from Dutch farms might be contaminated with the fipronil insecticide.
Reports say fipronil can treat lice and ticks in chickens, but should not be used on food-producing animals because of its toxicity.
Shops in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, have all removed the eggs from sale as a precaution.
About 180 poultry farms in the Netherlands have also been temporarily shut in recent days while investigations are being carried out.
The FSA says approximately 21,000 eggs were distributed to the UK from implicated farms in the Netherlands between March and June of this year 2017.
About 85 percent of the eggs consumed in Britain are said to be home-produced.
Fipronil is not approved for use in the food industry
The chemical is banned from use in the food industry under EU rules.
The chemical was reportedly used to clean chicken pens in order to combat red lice.
About 700,000 of the eggs from Dutch farms are said to have been distributed to the UK.
Samples analysed in the Netherlands show traces of fipronil in the eggs and twenty tonnes is said to be the equivalent weight of two-and-a-half African elephants.
Denmark is believed to be the tenth country affected by the widening scandal, with Romania and Luxembourg among the latest to report finding contaminated products.
Romanian authorities have equally said that one tonne of the liquid egg yolk contaminated with fipronil was found in a warehouse in the west of the country.