Eggs from seven Dutch producers have been recalled after pesticide residues were detected.
According to NL Times, the country’s food and consumer product safety authority, NVWA, called on the producers to stop selling eggs after the insecticide, fipronil, was found in eggs and the poultry houses.
It is not yet known if other egg producers are also affected, or how the pesticide came to be found when its use is prohibited for poultry.
Public safety is not in immediate danger, according to Lex Bender of the NVWA.
“If you eat an egg like those we found, you will not become sick,” he said. “But the substance does not belong in eggs, therefore we recalled them.”
Fipronil is an insecticide used in the control of fleas and mites in dogs and cats, reports Telegraaf.
As the producers affected recall their eggs from the food chain, criminal investigations are underway into how the banned product came to be used at the poultry farms.
A recently published 2015 European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) survey of a range of food products found that pesticide residues in eggs were “rare.” Just two of the 842 eggs tested exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) for any of the pesticides, and none was non-compliant.