Fipronil Crisis: Contaminated Eggs Found at 66 South Korean Farms

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the Korean Times, the ministries inspected a total of 876 farms, discovering fipronil or bifenthrin, both used for treating livestock pest diseases, in eggs produced at 62 officially approved organic farms and four non-organic farms. The government continues probing the produce at 363 other farms.

Government-licensed organic farms are allowed to supply their eggs for a price twice higher than that of the eggs coming from non-organic farms, which are permitted to sell them after passing a basic sanitary test. After the inspection, the authorities recalled eggs from 27 organic and four non-organic farms, letting to put the eggs from the remaining 35 farms on the shelves of grocery stores after taking down the "organic" tag off them, the news outlet reported.

On Wednesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon to oversee the handling of the food contamination scare after eggs containing fipronil, a hazardous insecticide, were detected in the country. The concern was triggered after a number of countries around the world, including Belgium, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong, have found eggs contaminated with the fipronil insecticide recently.

​The scandal over contaminated eggs is gaining power around the world. According to reports, apart from South Korea, eggs contaminated with fipronil have been detected in 15 European Union member states, as well as in Switzerland and Hong Kong.

In large quantities fipronil can cause liver, kidney and thyroid gland damage. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists fipronil as a "moderately hazardous" substance.