Changhua Shunhong Ranch fipronil exceeds limits, contaminating 460,000 eggs sold to Taipei and New Taipei, affecting breakfast vendors
The pesticide fipronil egg contamination incident strikes again! In 2017, an outbreak of fipronil residues in eggs, which are not permitted for use, affected over a million eggs across Taiwan (see the timeline at the end of the article). This year, a fipronil tainted egg incident has occurred again in Changhua! On January 25, agricultural authorities sampled 3 egg batches from Shunhong Ranch in Changhua County and detected fipronil residues exceeding the limit, with detected levels of 0.03, 0.04 and 0.06 ppm respectively (the residue standard is 0.01 ppm). The entire batch of non-compliant eggs was sold to Maoxin Hui Egg Trading in Taipei City, and downstream to individual vendors and breakfast vendors in Taipei and New Taipei, totaling 7,480 jin, approximately 74,800 eggs, which consumers may have already eaten.
The eggs currently confirmed to contain fipronil residues total 7,480 jin (the January 25 test batch, sold on January 27-28), and 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, stated that these eggs may all have been "hit" and eaten by consumers, but since several days have passed, fipronil may not necessarily be detectable. "Fipronil metabolizes very quickly in hens. The problematic eggs from January 25 may no longer be detectable after the 27th."
News Glossary: Fipronil is a pesticide and can also be used as an environmental agent, but it must not be used in chicken farming. However, when used for different purposes, the applicable management methods and residue standards differ. As a pesticide, it can be purchased directly from pesticide stores. As an environmental agent, it is available in different concentrations; some can be purchased by the general public, while others require a plan submitted by a pest control operator, and only after approval can a permit be obtained for purchase.
Appendix: 2017 fipronil egg timeline
July 20 - Belgium reported eggs with fipronil pesticide exceeding limits; the scandal later spread globally
August 04 - Livestock Division: Taiwan's farming methods are different, no monitoring in the past, there should be no safety concerns
August 18 - Food and Drug Administration: 10 eggs sampled, no fipronil contamination found
August 21 - "Upstream and Downstream" exclusively revealed that domestic eggs exceeded fipronil limits.
August 22 - Council of Agriculture announced three egg farms tested positive for fipronil, with the highest residue at 153 ppb
August 25 - Council of Agriculture conducted a nationwide survey of layer farms; 44 farms exceeded limits, affecting 1.24 million laying hens
End of August - Council of Agriculture announced that follow-up retests passed one after another; the fipronil scandal came to a temporary end
September 8 - Council of Agriculture held an expert meeting (open livestream) 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 City again detected fipronil exceeding limits in eggs from Tainan
October 25 - "China Times" reported that at the end of September, the Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute had directly sent a report on "establishing a fipronil background value standard of 10 ppb" to the Food and Drug Administration; Upstream and Downstream reporters verified and confirmed this
October 28 - New case in Hsinchu, eggs from Changhua exceeded fipronil limits
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 process of establishing fipronil pesticide residue standards for eggs was full of controversy; did risk communication suffer another blow?