Health officials dismiss any serious risks by insecticides

By Lim Chang-won Posted : August 21, 2017, 17:05 Updated : August 21, 2017, 17:56

[Yonhap Photo]


South Korea is collecting more than four million eggs tainted with insecticides for destruction, but food safety officials dismissed any serious health risks and urged citizens not to avoid the daily consumption of eggs due to an overblown health scare.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said government and health officials have retrieved some 4.51 million eggs produced by farms accused of using banned substances such as fipronil, or other authorized insecticides exceeding permissible levels.

School meals are safe, it said, adding some 350,000 eggs have already been consumed by the producers of bread and other processed food and sold at restaurants and retailers. At 52 farms, five types of insecticides have been used such as fipronil, bifenthrin and flufenoxuron. 

However, the five insecticides in question do not pose any serious risk to health because their residues are normally eliminated from the body in a month, the ministry said, adding they have already been used widely for farming through toxicity testing.

The ministry said it has yet to detect any insecticide residues from imported eggs, egg products and chicken meat in an inspection that began on August 8.






 
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