MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, appalled by the Fipronil tainted eggs scandal, were critical on Thursday 31 August of the slowness of the response of the member states and the Commission, when the malpractice had been uncovered around the end of May (see EUROPE 11851).
Director of the Commission’s DG Health Sabine Jülicher pointed out that the Commission had been informed of the Fipronil contamination on 20 July. She called it a case of non-compliance (referring to the presence of Fipronil at above maximum permitted levels). With regard to danger to human health, there were two samples where maximum limits were exceeded. “There is a very limited number of cases where the limit value was exceeded”, she said. Seeking to offer reassurance, she stated that “very few samples” reached the level of 1.123 milligrams of Fipronil. The danger to public health was only very slight, Jülicher said, pointing out that the contaminated eggs had been withdrawn from the market.
Fipronil is banned in environments where foodstuffs are produced, the Commission stated. It thus confirmed that there had been misuse of the substance in farms, “and it is difficult to see how this kind of fraud can be avoided”.
Timetable. From the information at its disposal, the Commission knows that the incorrect use of Fipronil began as early as September 2016, as shown by analyses of samples taken in 2016. According to the competent authorities, a sample taken on 15 May of this year (the results were known on 2 June) revealed the presence of Fipronil in eggs. A national-level investigation was launched to determine how the Fipronil could have found its way into the eggs and it was only on 20 July that the Commission was notified through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). On 7 August, the Commission called on the countries of the EU to tighten checks and launched a “proportionate approach” for processed products. In mid-August, all parties were informed of the requirement to provide notification of the destruction of eggs and processed products.
The Fipronil affair will be on the agenda of an extraordinary meeting on 26 September. At their informal meeting in the Estonian capital Tallinn from 3 to 5 September, agriculture ministers will also discuss the matter.
Harmonisation. The Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF) met on Wednesday 30 August to discuss the situation and “see what happened with processed products”, Jülicher said. The committee is reported to have given its agreement to putting in place a “harmonised approach” on processed products that were in production before the incident became known to the EU authorities. In addition, the Commission is working on a European system that will allow the presence of illegal substance in eggs and poultry meat to be detected. “This coordinated action on monitoring throughout all of Europe could be in place in the coming weeks”, said the Commission representative. Furthermore, the countries of the EU are trying to coordinate efforts to destroy all remaining material that contains Fipronil (eggs, carcasses, feathers, excrement, etc.). Lastly, the Commission will visit the countries to shed light on the affair and draw lessons for the future.
The Commission stated that 281 egg farms had been implicated in the scandal in the Netherlands (with 144 still locked down), 93 in Belgium (30 still locked down), 7 in Germany and 1 in France. Farms have been affected in Italy and Hungary and there are suspicions in Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic.
RASFF. Several MEPs called for the rapid alert system to be improved. These included Clara Eugenia Aguilera Garcia (S&D, Spain), Éric Andrieu (S&D, France), Michel Dantin (EPP, France), Ulrike Müller (ALDE, Germany) and Jan Huitema (ALDE, Netherlands).
These MEPs called for a faster system of communicating alerts and harmonisation of notification and monitoring procedures. The Commission argued that there had to be evaluation of how the RASFF was used. “At this stage, we can say that the system works well. The information flowed well. Was use made of it at every stage? We can’t yet judge”, said Jülicher.
She said that it will be possible to draw lessons for what is to happen next and see what might be improved. The Commission hailed the provisions on the labelling of eggs that made it possible to trace them and remove the contaminated products from the market.
Red lice. Red lice are becoming an ever-greater problem in poultry farms, the Commission acknowledged, following comments to that effect from Mairead McGuinness (EPP, Ireland) and James Nicholson (ECR, UK). Fipronil was used illegally to combat this parasite. Do other means exist to tackle red lice? The Commission said that, coincidentally, it had just authorised the use of a new product in the fight against red lice.
Amitraz. The Commission says that, for the moment, no trace has been found of the insecticide Amitraz has been found in the eggs tested.
Intensive farming. Several MEPs, among them Maria Lidia Senra Rodriguez (GUE/NGL, Spain), Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium) and Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany), asked about the industrialisation of agriculture. The Commission said that the organic eggs and poultry sector “has been affected, and not only conventional producers”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)