General Chat

Dutch police have arrested directors of Chickfriend the company at the centre of the fipronil scandal. They have also seized cars, cash, documents and property.

Meanwhile it transpires that that.use of these eggs in products in the UK has been widespread even by the sainted Waitrose. Such products are now withdrawn.

The USA has no problem with fipronil in the human food chain so add it to gm foods, hormone enhanced beef, chlorinated chicken and other culinary delights.

Brexit will remove a great deal of protection from our food chain and is set to destroy ag exports with ROI as collateral damage.

Somebody should apply fipronil to Liam Fox urgently.

But apparently all our shell on eggs are from the UK. Just to avoid scare mongering. The suspect eggs were all used in egg products.

Whether the eggs were shelled or not is bye the bye. Nevertheless I made it clear that Dutch eggs were only used in UK products and shelled eggs being mostly harmless at least in the UK.

In France the issue has led to a massive drop in sales of Dutch food products despite France being self sufficiant in poultry products.

FUD always wins the battles and sometimes the wars.

Advocate cat flea prep does not contain fipronil.

A good reason at last to sack the laying hens! They always considered themselves as being on the higher pecking order.

Maybe I'm missing the part where Rollo made it clear about the shelled and unshelled eggs .... as for Brexit removing all the regs nothing to say the UK won't just implement their own regs which might even equal or be better who knows....they're hardly just going to go well now we're out of Europe we can't have any regs what shall we do chaps....

Caroline, nope, just looked again I must be a bit missing too, no mention of shell on or off eggs in his post.

To be fair, he does say 'use of these eggs in products' i.e. making something using the eggs (cakes, quiches?).
When we see 'eggs' we do automatically think of them in shells then boiled, scrambled etc rather than other uses as an ingredient.

"Nevertheless I made it clear that Dutch eggs were only used in UK products and shelled eggs being mostly harmless at least in the UK."

Yeah detective I see your point but he does say he was clear between the two....but it's a minor issue...

Someone is bound to crack this conundrum soon. Easy over or dunking soldiers!

There's also the big-endian versus little endian conundrum.

Nobody has mentioned whether the chicken meat is also contaminated and is in the human food chain.

The Dutch for many years have operated a heavy duty ag industry based on their access to v cheap natural gas. Unfortunately there have been predictable events. Chief of these has been pollution of rivers and ground water and a series of animal health issues mainly affecting poultry of which the Chickfriend scandal is the latest. Dairy farmers have been forced to downsize forcing some into bankruptcy leaving nearly new milking parlors unused.

Dutch ag products are widely used across the EU as ingredients cos they are cheap, quick access to UK Benelux and Germany plus as ingredients they don't suffer from flag labelling. Repeated regulatory breakdowns threaten the whole EU food market. The Chickfriend saga us a big deal which this time must be nailed down.

It also serves as an eye opener into the US food regime where none of this would have been a problem.

It really makes no difference whether you buy the eggs whole or as an ingredient in a product fipronil is bad news. Adults can cope with limited intake but longer term it is cancerous hence the EU ban.

The companies marketing fipronil based products for flea and insect control are under heavy pressure to change their formulation. Def do not use such a product where the space is also used by children. Advocate is one alternative.

I love eating eggs. When I want a quiche, say, I make it myself. Hardly rocket science. Brits could enjoy nicer food, save money and avoid food risk if they cooked more / only from scratch. Poss brexit food price inflation will force them to.


Those who make flip remarks to such events are dummies.

Rollo in reply to your comment: "It really makes no difference whether you buy the eggs whole or as an ingredient in a product fipronil is bad news"

I do realise this, which is why I pointed out that information I saw said that the only eggs from Holland that have come into this country were for the making of egg products. all the shell on eggs on our supermarket shelves we are told come from UK chickens and are not affected."

Well if nothing else Brexit will force people to cook from scratch good not a problem they should more often anyway.

For years we've tried, when ever possible, to buy UK grown/bred labelled produce.
The reason isn't so much anti-EU as keeping an eye on 'food miles'.

Whilst admitting that the farm shop with truly local produce can work out more expensive than supermarkets, there's nothing to stop more people waiting until U.K. grown versions are in season. Why buy eg tasteless Spanish strawberries when English ones will available 4 weeks later?

In Ireland, a bad egg is sometimes referred to as a 'glugger' - rotten.

I recommend you avoid smelling such an item because your taste buds will be compromised thereafter.

You have been warned!

Belgium have said openly that the government knew they had infected eggs on the market since June 2017.so have the government not told there people about the eggs.

Well, I made a cheese omelette French style for breakfast, lots of fresh eggs, mushroom and grated cheddar stuffing, runny middle. Cooked in butter. Under 5 min yummy.
Alt. English style boiled eggs runny yolks bread soldiers. Also yummy.

English eggs are only safe so far as the food chain tells the truth.
That all UK slaughterhouses (Inc poultry) are now to be fitted with cctv suggests that is not something to be taken for granted.

In Normandie we have a friend who runs an organic poultry farm. The hens are happy good job land is cheap to rent cos they need a lot of room and effort. Hens expect a hen house on rainy days and to sleep. The eggs vary in size and color. Super to eat wonderful for cooking, same for a chicken to eat. The downside us €10 for a dozen eggs and €20-30 for a bird. She gets by, no more.

We all want great food but few are prepared to pay for it.

Well surely that is the same with all food. We have to trust that we are not being misled

I thought the CCTV was to stop cruelty, not safety as such?