This August, throughout Italy – from Emilia Romagna to the Marche and Campania – the Carabinieri and local health authorities (Asl) seized batches of Fipronil eggs or derived products (containing ingredients originating from Belgium and the Netherlands). Italy, too, therefore – as the European Union has confirmed – is among the fifteen countries in which eggs and egg-derived products containing the insecticide, which is mildly toxic to humans, have been sold commercially. The substance is used in veterinary medicine against parasites in domestic animals, but its use is prohibited in farms rearing animals for the food chain throughout Europe. It was there nonetheless. It ended up in eggs, pasta and confectionery. In Italy too.

Fipronil eggs: is this the first time?

No – for at least twenty years, seizures of eggs in which levels of contaminants, pharmaceuticals and prohibited or above-limit harmful substances have been found have been occurring one after another across Europe and in Italy. Antibiotics in particular. Sometimes, in the most high-profile cases such as the one that broke this summer, seizures take place at supermarket counters; at other times they are stopped at logistics centres or even placed under seizure at the farms themselves.

How and when did the Fipronil egg scandal begin?

The authorities in the Netherlands were alerted by an anonymous source in November 2016 that Fipronil was being used at poultry farms, but it appears that, contrary to European regulations, the alarm was not raised due to a failure to communicate. In July 2017, millions of hen eggs were blocked from sale or withdrawn from the market in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France after high levels of Fipronil were found in Dutch eggs and food products. Around 180 Dutch farms were temporarily shut down. Beyond Europe, the contaminant was detected in Switzerland and even in Hong Kong. At the beginning of August, many supermarkets announced they had removed entire egg supply lines.

What is Fipronil?

Fipronil is the trade name for fluocyanobenpyrazole, a veterinary insecticide used to exterminate fleas, lice, ticks and mites on domestic animals. It is, however, prohibited for animals in the food chain. It is a thermostable chemical compound, meaning it is not altered by cooking temperatures, and is therefore also found in derived products such as bread, pasta and confectionery. This compound is highly stable even at high temperatures: cooking does not degrade it. Its dermal absorption is minimal; what is therefore found in the body reaches it through the diet. The substance accumulated in poultry and was subsequently found in eggs.

How does Fipronil end up in eggs?

According to reports throughout the summer, it is said to have been used to disinfect the horrific sheds where hens are crammed together in intensive farms, where disease inevitably runs rampant and disinfection, even if insufficient, must be aggressive. However, following the recent invitation issued by the Italian Ministry of Health to also test animal feed, there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Fipronil may have been added, without the farmers' knowledge, to food intended for chickens, as a preventive measure to limit the spread of the red mite.

How harmful is Fipronil to humans?

Fipronil is only "moderately toxic" according to the WHO and, when ingested in minimal quantities, its effects are limited to abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Ingested in larger doses, however, it can cause damage to the kidneys, liver and thyroid. But that is not the point. The point is that it should never have been there – its use is prohibited, whether added to feed or in chemical products sprayed in enclosures, at hen farms.

The Italian eggs in which Fipronil was found – for instance those from the facility in Ostra Vetere in the province of Ancona – contained 0.056 mg per kg. That is ten times the legal limit, but far below a dose with toxic effects.

Even consuming one contaminated egg would have no consequences, because the values recorded are in any case very low relative to the acceptable daily intake estimated for humans.

Considering that an egg weighs approximately 50 grams, to reach a potentially harmful dose one would need to eat around twenty Dutch eggs or several hundred of the Italian ones.

In which products was it found, in Italy?

It was found in both derived products and fresh eggs. Here in Italy, the operations by the Nas at a packaging facility in the province of Ancona and at a farm in the province of Viterbo attracted considerable attention. In total, more than 90,000 eggs were seized: in Ancona, 6,000 eggs and a farm housing 12,000 hens; in Viterbo, 53,000 eggs intended for human consumption and 32,000 eggs intended for animal feed.

Italy has no need whatsoever to import fresh eggs from abroad; what is more, fresh eggs can be traced and checked by any of us at the supermarket through shell labelling, known as the egg code. The products derived from eggs originating from the Belgian facility Poultry Vision and the Dutch facility Chickfriend were the sources of the contaminated eggs.

While the origin of each fresh egg is easily traceable, the same cannot be said of the ingredients in derived products such as tagliatelle or confectionery. In such cases, even those of us who would on ethical grounds never buy eggs from caged hens might unwittingly purchase them.

What is the scale of yet another scandal?

In Italy, the Nas, working alongside the Asl, carried out hundreds of inspections at farms, egg distribution and processing centres, and manufacturing facilities and laboratories producing confectionery, sauces and egg pasta, while awaiting the analytical results of the preliminary samples sent to the laboratories of the Istituti Zooprofilattici in Teramo and Rome. Two farms in Campania were seized and a facility in the Marche was shut down, while in Milan seals had been applied to a company that had produced contaminated frozen omelettes. In Lazio, a case of contamination had already been found at an artisan pasta laboratory.

In reality, however, in some areas with a high concentration of farms (Emilia Romagna) the results are somewhat more concerning. Of 81 samples taken in Emilia Romagna from eggs and derived products, fresh egg pasta and hen meat, 17 tested positive for Fipronil. In the samples that tested positive, contamination levels average around 0.16 mg/kg – well below the 0.72 mg/kg toxicity threshold limit – yet the positivity rate was nonetheless in double figures.

To date, those responsible for the Italian alert system have sent 46 notifications to Brussels regarding products and eggs for Fipronil (there were 30 at the beginning of September). The notifications and updates recorded by Rasff total 623 (there were 430 at the end of August). The countries involved number 55 (there were 48 two weeks ago).

Is the scandal over?

No. Reports in the press have progressively thinned out (by late August only the occasional article could be found in local news announcing withdrawals), but in Italian laboratories and in the offices of Rasff in Brussels – home to the operational centre of the European rapid alert system – the matter continues to grow. Withdrawal/recall notices together with notifications and updates on ongoing investigations are increasing by around 100 per month: today there are over 600, compared with 430 at the end of August.

What happens when the Nas and Asl find positive samples?

For companies in which contaminated eggs and derived products are found, the process involves a health restriction and therefore a halt to the marketing of eggs, treatment of the animals, and a ban on slaughtering for meat sales.

How do you avoid contaminated eggs and derived products? Is there any way to be completely sure?

In general, it is always better to choose eggs from an organic farm — if you really cannot get them from a local farmer or an agriturismo, opt for organically farmed ones. The code on the egg, stamped on the shell, is "0 IT". This means: organic eggs, produced in Italy.

Not only do organic production rules completely exclude the use of contaminating substances in the treatment of hens, but, since organic methods are adopted voluntarily by producers, compliance with these rules is an integral part of their business conduct. In addition, the farms, the hens, and the eggs themselves are subject to further checks by organic certifiers accredited by the Ministry of Agricultural Policy. Packaged organic products must also contain only organic ingredients, so the same guarantees apply to all foods prepared under the organic label.