Dutch supermarkets remove egg products, ministers questioned over scandal

Supermarket chains Deen, Emte and Coop have been removing two types of waffles from their shelves because they may be contaminated with the banned pesticide fipronil, the AD said on Thursday.

In total, the 13 supermarket groups which are part of the Superunie buying combine, have removed the waffles from their stores without being requested to do so by the manufacturers.

The move, the paper says, is a ‘silent recall’ and that there is no danger to the public from eating the biscuits. ‘We expect more silent recalls,’ an Emte spokesman told the paper. ‘There are a lot of products which contain egg. We have no idea where it will end.’

The Dutch food processing industry body FNLI said earlier there is no danger to public health from eating food products which many contain egg that has been contaminated with fipronil.

Veal farms

On Wednesday it emerged that Chickfriend, the company at the centre of the scandal, may also have used a second banned chemical in a product to keep flies off calves in the veal industry.

One veal farm has already been banned from moving its cattle because both amitraz, which can attack the nervous system, and fipronil were used there.

Health minister Edith Schippers and junior economic affairs minister Martijn van Dam face questioning in parliament about the scandal later on Thursday.

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