The time for trial has come for those responsible for the tainted egg scandal. – Sebastien Pirlet / ISOPIX / SIPA
After the scandal comes the time for justice. Four years after the scandal of eggs contaminated with Fipronil, an insecticide whose abusive use in chicken farms had shaken the European poultry industry, a trial is due to be held this Thursday in Belgium.
Seven managers of companies based in Belgium, suspected of having imported, sold or used disinfectant products fraudulently enriched with Fipronil, must appear before the court of Antwerp (north).
Losses amounting to several million euros
Four companies are also being tried as legal persons, facing around thirty civil parties – including 21 Belgian poultry farms – claiming damages. The losses for the sector amounted to tens of millions of euros. The trial, which opens at 9 a.m., is expected to last on April 23 and 30. The judgment is expected in about two months, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Authorized to combat lice and mites in dogs or cats, the use of Fipronil is prohibited in the EU to clean livestock buildings because the antiparasitic risks ending up on animals intended for the food chain. The risk of even small residues must be excluded to protect human health.
A first major judicial meeting
This trial is the first major judicial meeting in Belgium in a case that originates on both sides of the Belgian-Dutch border. Entrepreneurs from both countries are accused of having built “a criminal organization” to sell in chicken farms a so-called miracle product against the declared enemy, namely the red louse.
The result: a worldwide scandal. The health crisis that broke out in the summer of 2017 affected almost all of Europe and suspect foods (eggs or potentially contaminated egg products) were even identified in Hong Kong. “In Belgium alone, more than 77 million eggs had to be destroyed” and “1.6 million laying hens killed”, deplores the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (Afsca), which is is brought as a civil party.
False labels
If no consumer has been sick, “the impact has been colossal on the perception of companies in the sector,” Stéphanie Maquoi, spokesperson for Afsca, told AFP. In the Netherlands, a court on April 12 sentenced two entrepreneurs aged 28 and 35 to one year in prison for having deceived an entire industry. “The thinking heads who organized this fraud are in the Netherlands and Belgium,” confirms the source familiar with the matter.
The Belgians tried in Antwerp are suspected of having sold or allowed the use of the same product as the Dutch, called “Dega-16” and presented as entirely natural. The buyers have been deceived by false labels, denounce the civil parties. The scandal had affected all EU countries except Croatia, Lithuania and Portugal.