Dutch exported 700,000 eggs to UK as they kept contamination secret

POISONED eggs may have been coming to Britain for months with the Netherlands accused of keeping the scandal quiet.

It has emerged that the Dutch authorities knew about the scandal in November but did not inform the EU until nearly eight months later, on July 20.

Belgium also knew about the mass contamination in June but kept it secret for nearly two months because of a criminal investigation.

It comes after Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose were forced to withdraw fresh salads, sandwiches and fillers from shelves, after finding they contained eggs implicated in the scandal.

Around 700,000 potentially affected eggs have been distributed from the Netherlands to Britain, with the number expected to soar into the millions in the coming days.

Yesterday the European Commission announced it will host an international conference on the tainted eggs issue to discuss the scandal, which has spread to 15 countries.

A spokesman in Brussels said the situation was “evolving by the day”, as criminal investigators continued to hold two men arrested on Thursday on suspicion of fraud following a series of raids in Belgium and the Netherlands. The affected eggs were produced under illegal conditions where an insecticide called fipronil was being used.

In large quantities it is considered to be “moderately hazardous”, according to the World Health Organisation, and can have dangerous effects on people’s kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Earlier this week major supermarkets were forced to withdraw sandwiches, salads and sandwich fillers which were feared to contain the contaminated eggs.

The stores were criticised over their “double standards” in using cheap imported eggs for fillers and sandwiches yet stocking British lion-shell eggs for sale directly to customers. Despite the controversy they will continue to import eggs from abroad, they said last night.

Initially the Food Standards Agency claimed that 21,000 contaminated eggs had hit the UK, but this has now been established to have been an underestimate.

The FSA now says the figure is more like 700,000, with experts predicting the figure could rise into the millions as the situation unfolds.

The FSA insisted there was “unlikely” to be a risk to public health but admitted it was still investigating the distribution of the eggs.

Stephen Kershaw, a forensic scientist at Manchester Metropolitan University, said consumers would need to eat 20,000 poisoned eggs in one sitting to become ill as a result.

This is based on a report from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, which said that the highest measured result for the concentration of fipronil in eggs in Belgium tested was 1.2 milligrams per kilogram.