The British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) has called for stronger deterrents for food fraud after news of an egg trader in the Netherlands was convicted and fined €30,000 for fraudulently selling eggs contaminated fipronil, and battery eggs as free range. These eggs were stamped with fake registration numbers, making it impossible to track their origins. Also, inspectors from the Dutch Food Safety Board (NVWA) found 280,000 unstamped eggs at the trader’s warehouse in June 2018, as well as ‘free range’ eggs from a farm which said it had never done business with the trader. The BEIC has called for stronger deterrents to be in place in the UK to discourage food fraud, and recommended UK food businesses to look for the "Lion" stamp as the scheme ensures the highest standards of food safety and has a number of stringent processes in place to ensure full traceability.
Read the statement by BEIC and news of the prosecution
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Member States and the Commission have agreed a raft of measures to reinforce action following the fipronil scandal including the possible creation of a Food Safety Officer in each country. Fipronil an insecticide used to control cockroaches, fleas and ants, but is illegal for animals intended for the food chain. It was found on Dutch and Belgian farms and 26 Member States and 23 other countries have been affected by its contamination in eggs and egg products. The Commission stressed that this was not a food safety problem but one of food fraud.
Read the article at: Action after fipronil incident
