Fipronil

The Bulgarian Embassy is among the 13 which have received letters with white powder. According to local sources, the substance is an insect venom, including the pesticide fipronil used in agriculture and veterinary medicine.

Such letters were sent to the Embassies of US, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, France, Romania, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland, etc.

The UAE banned the import of all chicken and egg products from Bulgaria following detection of a highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The ban extends to all live domestic, wild and ornamental birds, chicks, hatchling eggs and any egg-based products not thermally treated.

215,000 eggs containing fipronil have been found in a warehouse and stores in Plovdiv, the head of the regional food safety office, Kamen Yankov announced, reported Dnes.bg

The eggs have been seized for destruction.

The three farms where eggs were found with fipronil remain shut down, reports Sega. 

Currently, the withdrawal of eggs and the destruction of dangerous products continues, announced Minister of Agriculture and Food Rumen Porozhanov.

Within days it will be clear if there are more Bulgarian eggs with fipronil, reported bTV. The Food Safety Agency said inspections were carried out in other poultry farms, except for the three closed yesterday.

Bulgaria has submitted information to the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed Problems as one of the closed farms is exporting eggs abroad.

Eggs containg fipronil have been found in a packaging facility where eggs are delivered from three Bulgarian poultry farms, Bulgarian Food Safety Agency said on 14th of September. Most of the fipronil-affected eggs were in the shops in and around Sofia but larger amount of them have already been withdrawn from the market. The eggs have not been used for production of egg powder.

All inspections of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency show that there is no harmful food on the Bulgarian market. This was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Rumen Porozhanov, journalist at BGNES reported.

A notification was received by the European Commission's Rapid Alert System about a shipment of frozen egg melange containing fipronil and delivered from Germany, to the amount of 1,440 kg, the press office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry announced on 5th of September, reported the Bulgarian National Television.

The scandal of eggs contaminated with fipronil has affected 40 countries, the Austrian daily Die Presse writes.

According to media reports, 24 of the 28 countries of the European Union have reported the presence of their eggs or egg products contaminated with fipronil. There are also 16 countries outside the Community, including the United States, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.

There is a risk that new batches of egg powder with fipronil will reach Bulgaria. This was announced by Minister of Agriculture Rumen Porozhanov in Smolyan at the exhibition of rare breeds of animals in the Rhodopes.