FSA admits: UK did get toxic eggs

THE UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has admitted that toxic eggs did reach the UK earlier this year. They claim that the risk to the public is very low.

Fears about infected eggs occurred recently when supplies of eggs coming from The Netherlands – Europe’s largest egg supplier – were found to be infected with fipronil, an insecticide. One hundred and eighty Dutch eggs farms were closed while an investigation was launched into the cause – including whether the infestation had arisen as a result of a criminal act.

Initially it was announced that none of the Dutch eggs had reached the UK. The FSA has now admitted that a “very small number” of contaminated eggs did get through and they are now investigating how this happened.  The “very small number” is apparently 21,000 eggs, which the FSA regards as “very small” as the UK imports around 1.8 billion eggs a year (15% of the number consumed). The contaminated eggs are reported to have been sent to the UK between March and June this year.

The FSA says that as far as they know, the affected products are no longer on sale. The public will need further information before they will be entirely reassured, which is only based on information available to date and a level of risk assessed on the basis of what a normal diet is thought to be.

•Full story:
Aldi gets cracking on Germany egg ban

•Story update
•It has now been revealed that some contaminated eggs from The Netherlands have now been found in France.
•The eggs contamination crisis came to light when the Aldi supermarket chain took Dutch eggs off their shelves of their stores in Germany. (Aldi have stressed that eggs sold in their UK stores are not from Holland and are not affected by this crisis.) Some shops in Belgium and in Holland itself have now stopped selling Dutch eggs.
•In the Netherlands, where 180 egg farms have been closed while the cause of the contamination is investigated, there are fears among Dutch farmers that millions of chickens will have to be culled in order to eradicate the contaminating insecticide from the food chain.

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