The Netherlands: Experts say: Netherland's frugal ways caused egg scare

Dutch Government getting "egg on their face"

As Europe-wide health scare continues, millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across the old continent and dozens of poultry farms have closed since it emerged on Aug. 1 that eggs contaminated with fipronil, which can harm human health, were being exported and sold. Fipronil is widely used to rid household pets such as dogs and cats of fleas, but is banned by the European Union from treating animals destined for human consumption, including chickens.

The World Health Organization says fipronil is "moderately hazardous" in large quantities, with potential danger to people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Food safety authorities in The Netherlands - where farmers are at the epicenter of the row - this week admitted they received an anonymous tip-off last November about the use of fipronil in chicken pens but refuted allegations of negligence.

"It's mind-blowing that there was no connection made then, between the tip-off and the fact that fipronil may have contaminated both the chickens and the eggs," Dutch investigative journalist and food writer Marcel van Silfhout told AFP.

Had the NVWA, the Dutch food and goods watchdog, acted at that point, the latest trouble to hit the export-dependent Dutch food industry could have largely been avoided, said Van Silfhout, who penned a critical book about food safety and the NVWA in 2014.

Martin van den Berg, a professor and senior toxicologist at Utrecht University's Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences, added: "If there were investigators who were experts in this area and understood the impact of fipronil, maybe there would have been a different reaction."

But after consultations following the tip-off, the NVWA decided "there was no reason to think that fipronil would enter either eggs or chickens," two Dutch ministers said in a letter to parliament on Thursday.

Much of the current problem can be traced back to a growing loss of expertise; the NVWA and its predecessors have faced a series of cutbacks and trims since 2003, experts say.

The heavily burdened agency - which deals with food security but also general safety of goods - saw its permanent staff shrink from 3,700 full-time jobs in 2003 to 2,200 over the next decade, according to the Dutch Christian-based daily Trouw. Though the number is now back up slightly to about 2,600, many employees are not experts in their fields, according to Van Silfhout.

"There is no doubt that the problem started with the cutbacks since 2003," he said.

Since then, a series of food scandals to hit The Netherlands, including the outbreak of Q fever in 2007, which killed dozens of people, firmly laid the blame on the NVWA.

"A culture of soft enforcement took hold ... instead of clear independent inspections," Van Silfhout wrote. Pieter van Vollenhoven, Princess Margriet's husband and a former Dutch Safety Board chairman, agreed.

"At (farming) companies, economic considerations quickly took the lead," he told the Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad in a recent interview.

"The NVWA must stand up for public interest, for food security. Alas, the agency in reality is not a food watchdog, but an extension of economic policy," Van Vollenhoven said.

Read more Experts say : Netherland's frugal ways caused egg scare - Daily Sabah

The Netherlands - the contaminated egg scandal: Fipronil in eggs: Dutch police arrest two suspects

The Netherlands Egg Contamination Scandal

Police in the Netherlands have detained two businessmen suspected of being involved in the illegal use of a pesticide in the poultry industry. Millions of fipronil-contaminated eggs have been recalled since the scandal broke.

Dutch prosecutors said in a statement Thursday the men are directors of a company that allegedly used an unauthorized insecticide at poultry farms.

Investigators in the Netherlands and Belgium made the arrests during a string of coordinated raids linked to their probe into how fipronil, which can be harmful to humans, made it into the food chain.

"The Dutch investigation focused on the Dutch company that allegedly used fipronil, a Belgian supplier as well as a Dutch company that colluded with the Belgian supplier," the prosecutors said.

"They are suspected of putting public health in danger by supplying and using fipronil in pens containing egg-laying chickens."

Authorities in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany recalled millions of eggs at the start of the month after the discovery of fipronil in batches delivered to supermarkets. Dozens of poultry farms, mainly in the Netherlands but also in Belgium, have been closed down, while supermarkets have cleared tainted eggs from their shelves.

The French agriculture ministry confirmed on Friday that 250,000 contaminated eggs had been "on the market" in France between April and July. Five companies using egg products had been involved. A first batch of 196,000 eggs from Belgium had been placed on the market between April 16 and May 2 and a second lot from the Netherlands of 48,000 eggs had been sold through Leader Price shops between July 19 and 28.

Note EU-Digest: The European Commissioner charged with food safety has called for a meeting of ministers and national watchdogs to discuss the fallout of an eggs contamination scare that has led to finger pointing between several European Union members. 

Tensions had risen between agricultural ministers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany after traces of moderately toxic insecticide fipronil were found in batches of eggs, linked by authorities to a Dutch supplier of cleaning products. 

Read more: Fipronil in eggs: Dutch police arrest two suspects | News | DW | 10.08.2017