What Is Fipronil? The Hazards of Fipronil Residue in Eggs and How to Choose Eggs

What exactly is fipronil, and why is it said that eggs can contain fipronil residue? What is going on here? Fipronil is commonly used as a pesticide or insecticide, and it has a significant killing effect on insects such as ants, cockroaches, lice and bees. It is also used by pet owners to repel fleas. The fipronil sold on the market usually works by affecting the central nervous system of insects. After pests such as cockroaches eat fipronil bait and die, other members of the same species that eat the poisoned cockroach carcasses are poisoned as well. The powerful insecticidal effect brought by this chain reaction has led to fipronil being widely used.
 

Fipronil-Tainted Eggs: Many Countries Around the World Have Been Affected

In 2017, a global fipronil egg contamination incident broke out. Eggs from about 40 countries were contaminated with fipronil, and among the 28 member states of the European Union, eggs from 24 countries were contaminated with fipronil. In addition to eggs on the market in major European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and France being found to contain high concentrations of fipronil, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, China and South Korea in Asia were also successively reported to have fipronil-contaminated eggs circulating on the market.

In Taiwan, China, fipronil is a legal pesticide, approved for use on rice and corn and for controlling red imported fire ants, but the dosage and concentration used are not very high. In addition, tea leaves, edible fruits and vegetables, and livestock animals are not permitted targets for its use. For the general public, fipronil is mostly used as a flea treatment, and related products can be legally purchased for use on pets at home. Regarding the recent detection of fipronil in eggs, the Council of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration are continuing to investigate the source of contamination to prevent similar situations from happening again.

Choose Eggs with Traceability Certification: Toxicologist Says to Avoid Contaminated Egg Sources as Much as Possible

There are many types of eggs sold on the market. Among them, washed and graded eggs go through procedures such as washing, drying and screening out broken eggs before shipment. With standard operating procedures in place as a safeguard, their quality can be more reliably ensured than that of loose eggs. Yan Zonghai suggests that consumers can choose products from egg farms with a good reputation when buying, and try to avoid ingesting excessive fipronil.

Yan Zonghai added that fipronil has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an insecticide of moderate acute toxicity. In addition, animal experiments by the United States Environmental Protection Agency have confirmed the carcinogenicity of fipronil. However, Yan Zonghai stressed that there is currently no clinical medical evidence that fipronil directly causes cancer in humans. According to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) recommended by the United Nations, it is 0.0002 mg per kilogram of body weight. As long as consumers avoid buying problematic egg products, there is basically no need for excessive panic.