German supermarket chain yanks eggs amid pesticide scare
A major supermarket chain said Friday it is removing all eggs from sale in its German stores amid a scare over possible pesticide contamination that Dutch producers fear will cost them millions of euros in lost income.
Aldi said the move was a “purely precautionary measure” and there’s believed to be no health risk. It said that, effective immediately, it will only accept eggs that have tested negative for the pesticide Fipronil.
The scare, which originated in the Netherlands and Belgium, has drawn growing attention in neighbouring Germany. Germany’s agriculture minister and the European Commission both have said the situation is under control.
Aldi and rival Lidl had already taken eggs from farms under suspicion of Fipronil contamination off the shelves.
Two other German supermarket chains, Rewe and Penny, have stopped selling all Dutch eggs.
The German Farmers’ Association described Aldi’s decision to take eggs off the shelf as “an excessive reaction at this point in time.” It said that the Dutch disinfectant that is at fault was used in relatively few German farms, and they were closed and checked at the end of July.
The Dutch government’s health institute, citing the
World Health Organization and European food safety authority, says that in the few known cases of Fipronil poisoning in humans - mostly deliberate overdoses - the insecticide can lead to nausea, vomiting, dizziness and epileptic fits.
Dozens of farms are being checked in the Netherlands, and Belgium’s food safety agency is probing how Fipronil might have entered eggs destined for supermarkets. Fipronil is banned in products for treating animals like chickens that are part of the human food chain.
The Netherlands exports some 5 billion eggs to neighbouring Germany each year, said Hennie de Haan, chairwoman of the Dutch union of poultry farmers.
“We hope that German consumers will start trusting and eating our eggs again, otherwise this disaster will be immeasurable,” De Haan said in a telephone interview.