460,000 eggs contaminated with fipronil, pesticide residues severely exceeding the standard

The fipronil egg contamination incident has struck again! In 2017, a nationwide outbreak of eggs tainted with the banned fipronil affected over a million eggs (see the timeline at the end of this article), and this year a fipronil tainted egg incident has occurred again in Changhua! Agricultural authorities sampled 3 egg specimens from Shunhong Ranch in Changhua County on January 25 and detected fipronil residues exceeding the limit, with detected levels of 0.03, 0.04 and 0.06 ppm respectively (the residue limit is 0.01 ppm). The entire batch of non-compliant eggs was sold to Maoxin Hui Egg Company in Taipei City, which then sold them downstream to small retailers and breakfast vendors in Taipei and New Taipei, totalling 7,480 jin, roughly 74,800 eggs, which consumers may have already eaten.

The eggs confirmed so far to contain fipronil residues total 7,480 jin (the batch tested on January 25, sold on January 27-28), while Shunhong Ranch subsequently sold another 1,929 boxes of eggs between January 29 and February 13 (38,580 jin, 385,800 eggs). Huang Chin-cheng, deputy chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said in response that all of these eggs may have already been "hit" and eaten by consumers, but since several days have passed, fipronil may not necessarily be detectable. "Fipronil metabolises very quickly in hens. The problematic eggs from January 25 may no longer be detectable after the 27th."

News glossary: Fipronil is a pesticide that can also be used as an environmental agent, and its use in chicken farming is prohibited. However, when used for different purposes, the applicable management approach and residue limits differ. When used as a pesticide, it can be bought directly at pesticide shops; when used as an environmental agent, it comes in different concentrations, some of which the general public can purchase, while others require pest control operators to submit a plan and obtain a permit after approval before purchase.

Appendix: 2017 fipronil egg timeline

July 20 Belgium reported eggs with excessive fipronil pesticide residues, and the scandal later spread globally

August 04 Department of Animal Industry: Taiwan's farming methods differ, no monitoring was done in the past, there should be no safety concerns

August 18 Food and Drug Administration: 10 eggs sampled, no fipronil contamination found

August 21 News&Market exclusively revealed that domestically produced eggs had excessive fipronil levels.

August 22 Council of Agriculture announced that three egg farms tested positive for fipronil, with the highest residue at 153 ppb

August 25 Council of Agriculture conducted a nationwide census of laying hen farms, 44 farms exceeded the limit, affecting 1.24 million laying hens

End of August    Council of Agriculture announced that follow-up retests had passed one after another, and the fipronil scandal came to a temporary close

September 8  Council of Agriculture held an expert meeting (livestreamed), to discuss whether a fipronil residue background value should be established. The meeting concluded that a one-year study should be conducted before deciding whether to establish a residue value and residue standard

September 18 Taipei again detected excessive fipronil in eggs from Tainan

October 25 China Times reported that at the end of September the Taiwan Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute had directly sent a report titled "Standard for Establishing Fipronil Background Value 10 ppb" to the Food and Drug Administration, and News&Market reporters verified this to be true

October 28  A new case in Hsinchu, involving eggs from Changhua with excessive fipronil

October 30  Food and Drug Administration held an expert meeting (closed to the public) to discuss how to establish the fipronil background residue value

October 30 The standard for fipronil pesticide residues in eggs: the formulation process was full of controversy, making risk communication even worse?