UK Edition
More than 20,000 contaminated eggs sold and consumed in Britain, FSA says
More than 20,000 European eggs from farms at the centre of a contamination scare have been sold and consumed in Britain, it has emerged.
The eggs were imported to the UK between March and June, the Food Standards Agency said.
A spokesman admitted that the infected products would no longer be within their expiry date, meaning they would have already been eaten.
The FSA insisted there was “unlikely” to be a risk to public health but admitted it was still investigating the distribution of the eggs.
Aldi and Lidl stores in Germany have already taken millions of eggs off shelves amid fears they are tainted with traces of the pesticide Fipronil.
Supermarket giant Aldi said it was a "purely precautionary" measure and added that eggs sold in its UK stores were produced in Britain.
The scare started in the Netherlands and Belgium and it is thought that Dutch disinfectant is at fault.
Dozens of farms are being checked in the Netherlands, while Belgium's food safety agency is probing how Fipronil might have entered eggs destined for supermarkets.
The Dutch food authority shut 180 businesses last week and said that following tests, 138 poultry farms would remain closed, with one batch of eggs posing "an acute danger to public health".
Eggs from another 59 farms contained high enough levels of fipronil, that the food authority warned they should not be eaten by children.
In large quantities, fipronil, is considered to be "moderately hazardous" according to the World Health Organisation, and can have dangerous affects on people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.
The insecticide, manufactured by Germany's BASF among other companies, is commonly used in veterinary products to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks.
But it is banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption such as chickens.
It is believed the substance was introduced by a Dutch business, named Chickfriend, which was called in to treat red lice, a nasty parasite in chickens.
Britain produces 85 per cent of the eggs it consumes but imports almost two billion annually.
The British Egg Industry Council said there was no need to "change the way they cook or consume eggs" and that buyers should look for the British Lion mark to ensure they are getting "safe British eggs".
In a statement, the FSA said: "Following concerns raised in the Netherlands about a substance called Fipronil which has been used inappropriately in cleaning products on chicken farms, we have identified that a very small number of eggs have been distributed to the UK from the farms affected.
“Fipronil is not authorised for use as a veterinary medicine or pesticide around food producing animals.
"The number of eggs involved is very small and the risk to public health is very low, but we are urgently investigating the distribution of these eggs in the UK.
"We are working closely with the businesses that have received eggs from affected farms. Investigations to date indicate that any affected products are no longer on the shelves.”
The FSA said the number of eggs involved represents about 0.0001 per cent of the eggs imported into the UK each year.
It added: “Our risk assessment, based on all the information available, indicates that as part of a normal healthy diet this low level of potential exposure is unlikely to be a risk to public health and there is no need for consumers to be concerned.”