Fipronil Found in Eggs from Bulgarian Chicken Farms

Eggs containg fipronil have been found in a packaging facility where eggs are delivered from three Bulgarian poultry farms, Bulgarian Food Safety Agency said on 14^th of September. Most of the fipronil-affected eggs were in the shops in and around Sofia but larger amount of them have already been withdrawn from the market. The eggs have not been used for production of egg powder.

It is suspected that the farmers sprayed with insecticides banned from use, containing fipronil.

After receiving the results from the laboratory tests, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency immediately blocked from sale nearly 360,000 eggs. The amounts of fipronil identified in them were far from the toxic levels for humans, but were above the allowed norms in the eggs.

Todorka Yankovska, Deputy Director of FSA said that according to the standards, concentration of 0.72 mg / kg presents risk to human health. She explained that the quantity found in the eggs was significantly lower, but it was still above the allowed norms. Fipronil is banned from use in animals destined for human consumption, in this case egg-laying hens.

The Food Safety Agency urges consumers who have purchased eggs with batch numbers 3BG04001, 1BG04001 and 3BG04003 to return them to the shop.

The eggs are from two farms of the company "Consortium Agro Business AD" and from a farm of "Agroinvest product Ltd."

Doctor Luubomir Koulinski from FSA said that the three farms were temporarily shut down until the scale of the problem is established. He added that FSA suspected the use of fipronil which was not allowed. The eggs will be destroyed and when the final report is ready, we will notify the prosecutor’s office, he said.

Roumen Porozhanov, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, said that sanctions would be imposed. “The practice in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany is for these offenders to be given to the relevant authorities. We will do the same after the full report is ready,” he added.