Fipronil in Dutch eggs since 2016: Belgian minister

Toxic insecticide fipronil was discovered in Dutch eggs in November 2016 already, Belgian Agriculture Minister Denis Ducarme said in an emergency meeting about the fipronil crisis in Brussels on Wednesday. He also accused the Netherlands of taking too long to share this information, NU.nl reports.

The Belgian authorities requested the customer list of Dutch company ChickFriend - which is seen as the source of the fipronil contamination. ChickFriend treated a large number of poultry farms' stables with an insecticide containing fipronil.

According to to the Belgian Minister, it took the Netherlands a month to provide that information. Which delayed the Federal Food Safety Authority in determining whether Belgian eggs were also at risk.

Both the Netherlands and Belgium are conducting judicial investigations into the companies involved in this fipronil scandal. The Dutch Safety Board is also investigating why the toxic insecticide wasn't noticed sooner and what the role of the poultry sector and government was in that.

Over the past week and a half between 8 and 10 million eggs were recalled from supermarkets after fipronil was found in eggs from over a 100 companies.