Denmark the latest country to find contaminated eggs

Denmark is the latest country to find eggs contaminated with insecticide in its food chain.

Twenty tonnes of the contaminated eggs have been sold, according to the Denmark’s food safety authority.

The evidence of contamination emerged this month when Aldi pulled products off the shelves after Fipronil – an insecticide banned for use on farm animals because of its danger to human health – was detected in French, Belgian and Dutch poultry farms.

In late July, Dutch authorities shut down several poultry farms after finding high levels of Fipronil in batches of eggs.The boiled and peeled eggs were mainly distributed to cafeterias, cafes and catering firms.

Nikolas Hove from the Danish Veterinary and Food administration assured the public that although the levels of Fipronil found in the eggs are illegal, there are no urgent health risks.

In a statement earlier this week, Brussels said that eggs contaminated with the harmful chemical Fipronil might have been sold in some seven countries.

A Belgian company is being put under investigation for creating and supplying an illegal mite-killer containing Fipronil. Belgium had initially launched an investigation in June but only notified the European Commission in July.

Belgian officials admitted on Saturday they had kept the problem under wraps and failed to trigger the EU's international food safety alert system, but said it was because of a fraud probe. Meanwhile, Germany has demanded an explanation from Belgium about why the issue was kept concealed.

European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said that Netherlands, Belgium and Germany warned other countries about the possibility of having exported contaminated eggs to them.

Supermarkets in several European countries have already started pulling million of eggs from the shelves.

Fipronil is a common veterinary product used against common parasites, flees, lice and ticks, however it is banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption, such as chickens.

If consumed in large amounts, the insecticide is considered to be ‘quite hazardous’ according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as it can severely affect people’s kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.