VIENNA – Tests show that some imported egg products in Austria have been contaminated with a potentially harmful insecticide, Austria’s food safety agency said on Monday, adding to the list of countries affected by an international health scare.
Millions of chicken eggs have been pulled from European supermarket shelves as a result of the scare over the use of the insecticide fipronil, and hundreds of thousands of hens may be culled in the Netherlands.
“Fipronil was detected in a quarter of the samples,” Austria’s Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) said in a statement, adding that 80 samples had been taken from a range of products, reported Reuters.
Contamination was found in wholesale products used in the restaurant industry that had come from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland, AGES said, without elaborating.
The contaminated products would be withdrawn immediately, even though there was no public health risk, it said.
Some national regulators in Europe have voiced concern that many contaminated eggs have entered the food chain, mainly through processed products such as biscuits and cakes.