Europe tries to restrain contaminated egg crisis

Two men were arrested in the Netherlands due to the investigation of the fipronil pesticide contamination egg case in at least 14 European countries , informed the Dutch Attorney's General Office.

The men, arrested during a police raid in which houses and offices in the Netherlands and Belgium were searched, were directors of the Dutch company ChickFriend . Bank statements and computers were confiscated.

Meanwhile, in Belgium, 11 search warrants were carried out, which now target 26 individuals and companies as suspects , according to the public prosecutor of Antwerp.

“Nearly 6000 liters of banned products”-of fipronil according to the media-were seized in July in a Belgian company. The Dutch Attorney's General Office has not revealed the name of the company, but the company has been identified as the distributor of health products for livestock Poultry-Vision . The head of Poultry-Vision appeared in court in July, and then he was “released under strict conditions,” said the prosecutor.

Since Belgium warned its European associates, on July 20, dozens of poultry houses have been blocked, but millions of contaminated eggs reached 14 countries.

The United Kingdom announced that 700 thousand contaminated eggs were used to make food products.

Denmark indicated that “ 20 tonnes of boiled and peeled eggs were sold to a Belgian supplier” mainly to “cafeterias, cafes and catering firms”. The eggs that were sold were contaminated with fipronil, yet they “ posed no risk to human consumption ”.

In Luxembourg, the Aldi distributor had to remove what was left of two batches of eggs; one of them had fipronil rates so high that made them unfit for infant consumption .

In France, five companies specialized in egg based products received contaminated lots, and one poultry house has been blocked.

sg