Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves in several European countries - including the UK - after it was discovered that some had been contaminated with the potentially harmful insecticide fipronil.
Fipronil is commonly used to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks but is banned by the European Union for use on animals destined for human consumption, such as chickens.The insecticide got into the food chain in the Netherlands, which is one of Europe's biggest egg producers. There is no evidence yet that it has harmed anyone.
What is fipronil and is it harmful to humans?
Fipronil is a popular pesticide, often used to de-flea household pets such as dogs and cats. It is also effective at treating red lice, which are commonly found in poultry.The World Health Organization (WHO) says fipronil is "moderately toxic" to people if it is eaten in large quantities, and can have dangerous effects on the kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.
It can also cause "nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness, and epileptic seizures," says the Dutch food standards' agency the NOVA, although its effects are reversible.
Should we stop eating eggs?
The Dutch food standards agency NOVA has published a list of certain batch codes of eggs that should not be consumed. It said one batch in particular - with the code 2-NL-4015502 - could pose "an acute danger to public health".It has also recalled eggs from some 59 producers whose fipronil levels it says could pose a risk to children if eaten too frequently over the long term.
Dutch eggs have also been removed as a precaution from supermarkets in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, France and Luxemburg.
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While tests have found levels higher than the recommended EU limit of 0.72 mg/kg in eggs, both food standards' agencies and toxicologists are playing down the risks for anyone who has already eaten contaminated eggs.
Dutch toxicologist Martin van den Berg told local media that it would only be harmful "if you eat them every day throughout your life."
The German food standards' agency said that an excess of fipronil in the short term "does not automatically mean that consumption of the food in question involves a health risk".
The UK's Food Standards Agency initially believed only 21,000 eggs in Britain were affected, but later revised this number to 700,000.
The FSA said the number of affected eggs represented about 0.007% of eggs consumed in the UK each year, and said it was "very unlikely there is any risk to public health from consuming these foods".
Where and how did the contamination originate?
The contamination was discovered on Dutch poultry farms, and some 180 farms - which produce millions of eggs a week - have been temporarily shut down while further tests are carried out.It is thought that Fipronil was added to an allowable treatment for red mites.
A criminal investigation is now under way in Belgium and the Netherlands, centring on two firms - Poultry Vision, a pest control firm from Belgium, which is alleged to have sold the treatment to a Dutch poultry farm cleaning company Chickfriend.
Those firms have not yet publicly commented on the allegations although the AFP news agency reports that a lawyer for Poultry Vision has confirmed the firm sold the treatment to Chickfriend, but did not say where it had come from.
A number of police raids have been carried out in the two countries in connection with the contamination, and Dutch police have arrested two people.
What has been the political reaction?
The scandal only became public at the start of August when the Netherlands ordered the affected eggs to be pulled from supermarket shelves.Belgium came in for criticism when it emerged it knew about the fipronil contamination in early June but did not notify the European Commission until late July because of the fraud investigation.
However, Belgian Agriculture Minister Denis Ducarme has since hit back, accusing the Dutch of knowing about the problem as far back as November 2016. The NVWA has rejected the claim.
But the suggestion that fipronil may have been in the food chain for longer than previously thought has alarmed many.
German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt called the circumstances "criminal" and French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert said he wanted "much more fruitful and rapid exchanges of information" with his EU partners on the issue.
Europe's egg scare: What we know
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