Food Agency denies that it knew of issues with eggs in May

"In mid-May no-one in Belgium knew that there were issues with fipronil" FAVV’s Katrien Stragier told VRT Radio 1’s morning news and current affairs programme ‘De ochtend’.

"On 15 May no-one in Belgium knew that there was a problem with fipronil". It was on 15 May that that the producer took a sample as part of its own system of internal checks. It was as a result of this screen that it became apparent that were possibly issues with fipronil.

Ms Stragier added that the company in question immediately informed the FAVV.

"On 2 June we received a report that there were issues with a batch of eggs. The batch was withheld and didn’t enter circulation”.
In his interview Mr Staes also said that the company had record fipronil levels of 1.2 mg/kg. This is far above the permitted limit.
However, Mr Stragier says that further test carried out by the FAVV showed that the levels were much lower."

“In our tests the same levels were not recorded as those on that appear on the document. The levels found were not dangerous. It was on the basis of this that we continued our investigation”. The FAVV will explain further during Wednesday’s extraordinary meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee.