US authorities weigh in on Europe's contaminated egg scandal

United States authorities have weighed in on Europe's contaminated egg scandal, suggesting it is a case of "economic fraud" rather than food safety.

The discovery of the insecticide fipronil in eggs is "rapidly ballooning into an EU-wide crisis", according to the report published by the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service.

"Two months after the first notification of a potential food safety problem, the case appears to be more of an economic fraud issue and failure of the EU-wide food safety system than a food safety and a health risk concern," it states.

Eggs were pulled from European supermarket shelves in late July after the discovery of fipronil in eggs became public.

The USDA report says the scandal is now in the hands of European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis amid criticism of the Belgian and Dutch authorities' handling of the situation.

Fipronil is used in veterinary products to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks but is banned for use in the food industry by the European Union. 

On Monday, the Luxembourg government announced egg samples from two Luxembourgish farms showed no traces of fipronil.

(Hannah Brenton, hannah.brenton@wort.lu, +352 49 93 728)