'Too little attention to food safety'

"Not only the egg sector, but also the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority and the ministries involved paid too little attention to food safety at the time of the fipronil affair," the report on the fipronil affair states.

The report also shows that Minister Edith Schippers (Public Health) and State Secretary Martin van Dam (Economic Affairs) did not fully inform the House of Representatives last year and gave a distorted picture of the situation.

The main responsible
In the report of the Sorgdrager committee, the Chickfriend company is identified as the main responsible for the scandal seen. The company used fipronil at about 360 companies. However, the committee does report that all parties involved lacked the opportunities to avoid a crisis. "The system that is supposed to guarantee food safety does not appear to work."

It appears that the poultry sector put its economic interests first, where food safety should have been paramount. As a result, there was not sufficient checks for prohibited substances. "Also responded the NVWA not sufficient on 3 signals (late 2016 and early 2017) about the use of fipronil. This allowed Chickfriend to continue to use the drug," the report says. The regulator also turned out to be unprepared for a food crisis.

The committee further states that the ministries of Health and Economic Affairs underestimated the impact of the fipronil affair. The Committee points out that the first letter from Schippers and Van Dam did not mention that warnings had been received by the NVWA.

Fipronil affair
In summer of 2017 came out that fipronil might have been processed in Dutch eggs. This resulted in nearly 3,6 million animals being killed. LTO Nederland estimates the damage to the sector at €100 million.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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