No Belgian chicken meat has tested positive for banned insecticide
This follows tests at all Belgian farms producing both eggs and meat.
“We wanted to have an idea of the levels of fipronil that we could find and, up to now, our results have been good,” said a spokesperson for FASFC.
“As soon as we knew that a problem was possible in the [egg] sector we blocked everything that was suspected to be contaminated – no eggs or meat were allowed to leave the farms.”
FASFC’s results on all chicken meat samples tested by the agency are due to be published by the end of the week. This will likely provide a final answer on whether meat, as well as eggs, has been contaminated, drawing a line under any lingering uncertainty about Belgian chicken meat contamination in the wake of toxic egg recall.
Earlier this week, The Guardian newspaper claimed egg-laying chickens in Belgium, due to be slaughtered next month for export to Africa, had been found to have been treated with fipronil.
In response to this story, Johan Van Bosch, head of Belgium’s National Association of Egg Traders (NVE), told this site there was no evidence to suggest meat had been contaminated. He said all samples of meat had been found to be “safe” as “only negative results” had been recorded.
The Netherlands – the other country majorly implicated in the egg recall – has also been testing samples of chicken meat. At this stage, it is unclear if any samples have been found to contain traces of fipronil and the country’s food safety agency, the NVWA, could not be reached to comment at the time of writing.
