Aldi pulls Dutch eggs in Germany as scare widens

Berlin: Discount supermarket giant Aldi said it was pulling all Dutch eggs from its shelves in Germany over an insecticide scandal that has spread to food stores across Europe.

Aldi said it was making the move "purely as a precaution" but acknowledged it could lead to "market shortages" for eggs in Europe´s top economy.

Authorities in Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden also said they were tracking shipments and removing eggs, as the impact of the affair widened.

Aldi pulled all of the Dutch eggs after it emerged that at least three million tainted with a toxic insecticide had made their way to Germany and been sold.

However a regional agriculture minister, Christian Meyer of Lower Saxony, told ZDF public television it was now believed 10 million contaminated eggs might have reached Germany.

Authorities suspect the substance, fipronil, was introduced to poultry farms by a Dutch business named Chickfriend that was brought in to treat red lice, a nasty parasite in chickens.

In large quantities, the insecticide is considered "moderately hazardous" according to the World Health Organization, and can be dangerous to people´s kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

In Belgium, the Colruyt supermarket said it had removed eggs from two suppliers in July, whose farms were suspected by safety monitors of being contaminated with insecticide.