The crisis reawakens ghosts of 1999 when a dioxin scare shattered faith in the government.

Simon Marks, Emmet Livingstone and Jakob Hanke


No wonder Belgium is panicking.

A snowballing health scandal over a poisonous insecticide in eggs has revived the specter of a massive political crisis in 1999 that brought down the government.

Belgium will convene an emergency session of ministers in parliament Wednesday to determine whether it can still rely on the food safety apparatus created nearly 20 years ago to prevent a rerun of the dioxin crisis, which is now etched into Belgians’ memories.

In 1999, toxic dioxins entered the food chain through animal feed via an oil and fat recycling company in Flanders: Vetsmelter Verkest. Health authorities sat on the information for months, leading to accusations from then-opposition leader Guy Verhofstadt of a premeditated cover-up. Ministers resigned, shoppers panicked, demand for dairy products dried up and pigs were slaughtered. Neighboring countries lambasted Belgium’s opacity and France banned a wide range of Belgian food items.

Fast forward two decades, and Belgium is again in the thick of it, and many of the same problems of poor communication are re-emerging, with Germany especially furious about the lack of information it is receiving.

The question of whether dangerous levels of fipronil have been found in Belgium is — at best — confused.

The latest crisis hinges on a poison called fipronil that has contaminated eggs across several EU countries, thanks to an illegal mite-killing detergent for chickens made by a company in Flanders called Poultry Vision. While tests identifying a “serious” risk were first conducted in May and an investigation was opened in June, the public was only informed at the end of July, and then only because of concerns in the Netherlands. Across the EU, hundreds of farms have closed and sales of tens of millions of eggs have been halted.

Fipronil can damage organs ranging from the liver to the thyroid gland, and it’s especially harmful to children.

Belgian Agriculture Minister Denis Ducarme and Health Minister Maggie De Block will try to explain Belgium’s handling of the crisis to parliamentarians Wednesday. Ducarme has called for a detailed report from Belgium’s Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSCA) and prioritized consumer safety.

The European Commission said Monday that seven countries may be affected.

Germany, which fears it has imported millions of contaminated eggs, is the most vocal critic. Regional officials angrily accused the Belgians of not picking up the phone and of not being “up to the job.” The agriculture ministry in Berlin said Christian Schmidt, Germany’s farm minister, called his Belgian counterpart Monday to demand “a fast and complete clarification of the ongoing situation.”

Turbid timeline

Much of the appraisal of the scandal will hinge on its messy chronology.

AFSCA said it was informed in early June that traces of fipronil had made it into the food chain via eggs. But the agency failed to notify its partners in Europe of the scandal for nearly two months.

The frustration with the Belgian authorities is shaping into the biggest black mark against the country’s administration since its intelligence networks were widely accused, especially by French President François Hollande, of failing to identify the terrorist networks behind attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016.

According to an official notification form filed by the Belgian state, the sampling of the contaminated eggs took place May 15. However it wasn’t until July 20 that Belgium informed its European partners via the EU’s so-called Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed. Only on August 1 did AFSCA make its first public announcement on the issue.

Katrien Stragier, a spokesperson AFSCA, said the May 15 date referred to the day that a private egg producer in Belgium conducted its own tests to check for fipronil. It was not until early June that AFSCA was informed.

Thijs Verbeurgt, head of the policy unit for the Flemish Social-Democratic Party, said “The big question is who knew what when.”

“What we’ve been feeling is that they [Belgium’s food safety authority] took a minimalist approach, minimal [communication] and minimal action, while in the Netherlands and Germany they’ve been taking maximal steps,” Verbeurgt said. “That means destroying eggs and chickens in the interests of the consumer.”

Questions about measuring egg safety

The question of whether dangerous levels of fipronil have been found in Belgium is — at best — confused.

In Germany’s view, dangerous eggs have been found in Belgium. According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Germany, Belgian eggs have recorded fipronil levels of between 0.0031 mg/kg to 1.2 mg/kg. Only eggs with a fipronil level of up to 0.72 mg/kg are considered safe for human consumption.

But Belgium says there is no danger. On Monday, AFSCA said test results from 21 egg-producing businesses showed a maximum level of fipronil recorded of only 0.096 mg/kg.

Asked why Belgian authorities had not used the 1.2 mg/kg result, Stragier explained that figure was from the private producer and not from AFSCA’s data. “We base our analysis on the results that we see in the analysis we have done here in Belgium. We’ve done our own analysis and taken samples of companies which are suspected of having used fipronil, and the results indicate that there is no health risk in Belgium,” she said.

Germany also complained that the context of 1.2 mg/kg reading was not properly explained by the Belgian authorities.

Andreas Tief, spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, said that when Belgium finally did inform other countries, authorities said there was no risk to other nations. They didn’t tell EU countries about Poultry Vision’s tainted DEGA-16 detergent.

“Their message was that neighboring countries were not concerned and they did not inform us about DEGA-16,” Tief said.

Another big question for the Belgians to explain is why the Netherlands declared the risk to be far greater.

And poor communication isn’t helping.

“The federal [agriculture] minister has not only spoken publicly about problems in the cooperation. He has also had talks on the highest levels with Belgian counterparts,” Tief said. “That gives you a sense of how things are going.”

Another big question for the Belgians to explain is why the Netherlands declared the risk to be far greater. The Hague declared eggs from 59 producers to be unfit for consumption by children.

Benno Bruggink, a spokesperson for the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, said that any time fipronil levels rise above 0.72 mg/kg the authorities will issue a public warning.

Asked if the approach in the Netherlands was of a more precautionary nature when compared to Belgium, he said: “It would seem so.”

Source: http://www.politico.eu/article/egg-s...itical-crisis/