The scope of Europe' s contaminated egg scandal is expanding, reaching as far as Hong Kong. Farms in four countries — Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany
The scope of Europe’s contaminated egg scandal is expanding, reaching as far as Hong Kong.
Farms in four countries — Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France — have been blocked from selling eggs after detection of the pesticide fipronil, EU trade and agriculture spokesman Daniel Rosario told reporters Friday .
He says contaminated eggs have also been found in at least 11 other EU member states — Sweden, the United Kingdom, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Denmark — as well as in Switzerland and Hong Kong.
Millions of eggs have been recalled from European supermarket shelves over concerns about the use of the pesticide. Fipronil is used to kill insects such as mites and is banned from use on animals in the human food chain. It was believed to have been mixed with a pest-control agent that is legal to use around poultry, contaminating their eggs.
«It’s the moment to act in a decisive, coordinated and transparent manner, not to engage in any kind of blame game, » Rosario told reporters.
However, Belgium and the Netherlands are trading accusations about when they became aware of the contamination and whether they did enough to alert other countries to the risks, as NPR’s Colin Dwyer reported:
«At an emergency parliamentary hearing Wednesday, Belgian Agriculture Minister Denis Ducarme placed the blame for the contamination with the Netherlands.
