Martijn van Dam

The Tweede Kamer is cutting its summer holiday short in order to debate the fipronil contamination of eggs from Dutch poultry farms with Public Health Minister Edith Schippers and State Secretary Martijn van Dam of Economic Affairs, NU.nl reports.

Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA denies that it first learned that eggs were maybe contaminated by toxic fipronil in November last year. The authority did receive a report about fipronil in that month, but that report only stated that it had been used to clean stables - there was no reason to believe that it could end up in eggs and pose a potential health risk, inspector general Rob van Lint said on Wednesday, RTL Nieuws reports.

After seven weeks in quarantine, giant pandas Wu Wen and Xing Ya will make their first public appearance at the Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen this afternoon. "We have been waiting for this moment for a long time", zoo director Robin de Lange said to RTV Utrecht. "You can imagine that if you wait for something so long, then your are very happy that it's finally happening today."

Economic Affairs State Secretary Martijn van Dam and slaughterhouses in the Netherlands came to an agreement on voluntary camera supervision to monitor against animal abuse. The cameras will make sure that there is a good view on all actions involving living animals. "You must be able to see every step in the process", Van Dam said to broadcaster NOS. 

Departing State Secretary Martijn van Dam of Economic Affairs wants to install cameras in Dutch slaughterhouses and give the footage to Dutch food safety authority NVWA to monitor abuse. This is in reaction to leaked footage showing horrible abuses in a Belgian slaughterhouse, AD reports.

The video from Tielt, Belgium shows pigs being kicked and beaten, being cut open while fully conscious and being drowned. The slaughterhouse, which also supplied some Dutch butchers, was closed indefinitely.

Bird flu was diagnosed in sick birds on a poultry farm in Zoeterwoude, Zuid-Holland. A total of 28,500 birds on the farm were culled, as well as some 30 thousand birds on a nearby farm, RTL Nieuws reports.

The two farms are located about a kilometer fro each other. Another poultry farm is about 3 kilometers from the infected farm. Its animals are being examined for bird flu.

All poultry farmers in the Netherlands were ordered on Wednesday to cage and guard all their birds intended for the production of meat and eggs. This precautionary measure was implemented by State Secretary Martijn van Dam of Economic Affairs after highly pathogenic bird flu H5N8 was found in wild birds in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland, NOS reports. 

About 10 dead grebes and tufted ducs were also found in the Netherands, near Monnickendam. They died of bird flu, though further study will reveal whether it was subtype H5N8. 

State Secretary Martijn van Dam was involved in a traffic accident in Seoul, South Korea. His car was hit by a van. The State Secretary escaped with only a shock, but the car sustained considerable damage

Dutch people still throw away an average of 135 kilograms of food per person a year. That brings the total food waste for the Netherlands to a total of about 2 billion kilograms per year, which means that the government's goal of reducing food waste by 20 percent was not reached

The Dutch government is further restricting hunters from importing their trophies to the Netherlands. The list of banned trophies was extended to also include the species white rhino, elephant, hippo, cheetah, polar bear and lion

The Netherlands is working on developing a smartphone app that will allow consumers to scan supermarket products, see what ingredients are in them and what route those ingredients followed to end up in the supermarket. State Secretary Martijn van Dam of Economic Affairs wants to start making arrangements with supermarkets and food companies this month.