EU egg scandal deepens as contaminated products reach 15 countries
Farms have been shut down in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands after the spread of eggs contaminated by fipronil. The insecticide, which doctors have warned can cause organ damage in large quantities, is banned from the food chain under EU rules. The UK, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia have all received toxic eggs.
Supermarkets in Hong Kong and Switzerland have also been forced to remove tainted eggs from their shelves. The European Commission has called a meeting next month to discuss the fallout of the scandal. Vytenis Andriukaitis, the commissioner in charge of food safety, urged member states to stop bickering over who is to blame. He said: "We need to work together to draw lessons learnt and move forward instead of losing energy on finger pointing."
GETTY The EU has been plunged into a fresh crisis over contaminated eggs
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GETTY Fifteen EU countries have received eggs contaminated by fipronil
There are obviously lessons to draw from this EU spokesman
The Commission has been accused of ignoring warnings from Belgian food safety officials about the fipronil outbreak. But a spokesman insisted: "The EU has the most advanced and sophisticated systems to protect our citizens and our consumers. "There are obviously lessons to draw from this and this is obviously what we are going to do."
GETTY Brussels has been accused of ignoring warnings about the scandal