The Curious Case of Fipronil-Eggs: Should we be concerned?

This article is regarding the recent 'Fipronil Contamination Scandal' as it is now popularly known. The scandal primarily involves Belgian and Dutch authorities with a whole host of European countries and the UK caught in its aftermath. With eggs contaminated with Fipronil, a common component of pesticides used by poultry farmers, a heated debate as to the trustworthiness of food safety by government officials, health safety officials and consumers has ensued. To better understand this 'scandal' let me lay out a timeline that is fairly accurate:

Fipronil

at a glance   

A non-specific GABAA receptor antagonist pesticide falling under Phenylpyrazoles. Used mainly by poultry farmers against ants, mites, fleas, ticks and other insects. Sits on GABAA receptors in the central nervous systems and prevents uptake of chloride ions. This leads to neuronal hyperactive state leading to death. Due to its higher affinity for insect GABAA receptors it is preferred as a pesticide. Sulfur derivatives of Fipronil on the other hand are highly toxic to mammals in comparison to insects.

Side effects of poisoning: Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, abdominal pain, headache and seizures

Timeline:

Nov'16 - May'17: Speculated exchanges between the Belgian and Dutch authorities regarding isolated incidents involving Fipronil contamination

                                                 

                        

Jun'17: Attestable reporting of contamination by a farm to Belgian authorities which was left unheeded thinking it was an isolated incident

 

July 6th'17: Belgium's national food safety authority, FASNK alerts European commission of the scare

July 20th'17: The first official risk report sent by Belgian official to the European commission

August'17: Joint raids of suspected illegal farms that use Fipronil and massive recall of egg

        containing products by retailers primarily from UK, German and Netherlands    (still expanding to countries such as France)

Ø  UK till now has recalled 70,000 eggs - example retailers Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Waitrose

To see a complete list of withdrawn products click here

Ø  Germany recalled millions of eggs - example retailer Aldi Lidl

The Scandal - Interesting points

While is it unclear who is to blame for the slow response of authorities in detecting and cracking down on illegal farms, it is clear that Fipronil was found in a place it shouldn't have been:

·         Used by poultry farmers to kill red mites, authorities are not interested only in eggs but are also testing for chicken meat contamination. That's right. There is a chance this Type II moderately hazardous to human life pesticide could be in your wings and chicken salads. Though unlike eggs, Fipronil hasn't been detected yet in meat.

·         The FSA has determined that fresh eggs are safe and that those that could be affected have mostly all been consumed by people based on the batch's expiry dates.

·         The safe concentration of Fipronil determined by the European commission is 0.72 mg/kg but a few cases had exposures of up to 0.92 mg/kg.

·         One important thing for solace though is that for all past cases and now to come cases, eggs are usually mixed in products so the concentration is usually diluted more leading to no issues.  

·         An additional point of joy for UK is that it produces 75% of its egg requirements! so those nasty ones being imported won't be around much, except when retailers cheat to use more imported eggs instead of the British Lion eggs in their products than thought of.

Here is the FSA's press statement on the matter:

" We are reminding food businesses of their legal responsibilities which include informing the FSA or FSS and relevant local authorities immediately if they have any reason to believe that a food which they have imported, produced, processed, or distributed does not comply with food safety requirements. "

What should we take away from this incident?

Now, late as it is, steps are being taken to curtail further contamination in all possible ways. Given these findings in developed nations with an established and compliant quality control structure, it raises the question "What is the scenario in developing nations?" This question addresses more than just Fipronil. With improper regulation, we may be facing more deaths of "unknown causes" because we weren't shrewd enough to identify exposures let alone catch them early.  

Fipronil is used not only as a pesticide for animal rearing, but also as pest control on rice and cotton, heavily grown in South Asian countries. Given the chance of unregulated and non compliant use of these pesticides in these countries, exposure to high levels of Fipronil and possibly other chemicals is not improbable. Moreover, only 1% of globally sprayed pesticides are effective in targeting plants. The remaining 99% will mostly end up as residues in air, water and soil. A slow build up of these over years, forget spraying, even your mere presence there is enough to poison you. Most pesticide residues go on to become environmental toxins. Fipronil itself is known to cause Colony collapse disorder in bees and affect fishes and aquatic vertebrate. So India and China, being top 2 Asian producers of pesticides are at the highest risk for these issues. We have just spoken about Fipronil because it's in the media limelight right now. Extrapolate all these hazards to all the other categories of chemical pesticides like Organophosphates, Carbamates and Pyrithroids, and we have got ourselves a HUGE problem at hand.     

There have been so far very few reported deaths as a result of Fipronil poisoning. In fact in most cases, no matter the symptoms, the outcome is usually favourable. What is alarming though, is that the few deaths that HAVE occurred, did so as a result of exposure levels of 0.1mg and less. This does not correspond to the safe dose level of 0.72mg/kg ascertained by the FSA.  

There are still many aspects of pesticide exposure in developing countries such as a proper support system, proper administrative action and regulation, quality control, awareness raising amongst farmers using them, etc that still need tending to. With these many questions left unanswered, the question we must really be asking ourselves is "Are eggs the only thing we should be worried about?"

Sources:

The scandal details:

Ø  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/eggs-recall-uk-pesticide-fipronil-contaminated-germany-lidl-aldi-netherlands-a7886041.html

Ø  https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/839541/eggs-Fipronil-contamination-pesticide-European-Union-food-safety-Brussels

Ø  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/10/dutch-egg-scandal-real-number-contaminated-eggs-700000-fsa-says/

Ø  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/09/contaminated-eggs-netherlands-failed-to-sound-alarm-says-belgium

Ø  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/eggs-contaminated-pesticide-fipronil-europe-belgium-netherlands/

Ø  https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/food-safety/fipronil-egg-contamination-scandal-what-you-need-to-know-now/556123.article

Ø  http://modernfarmer.com/2017/08/german-supermarket-giant-aldi-pulled-eggs-due-insecticide-scare/

Pesticide and India:

http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jpbs/papers/Vol11-issue5/Version-1/Q110501131137.pdf

Fipronil fact sheet:

1. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/fiptech.html

            2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1351141/