As the estimation of the risk to consumers was made on the basis of the available data with a number of very conservative assumptions, the expected actual exposure of consumers should lie well below the exposures estimated here.

Based on German and European consumption data (NVS II Model and EFSA PRIMo (Ver.2)), no exceedance of the ADI value (0.0002 mg/kg body weight per day) results for any of the observed consumer groups through the consumption of chicken eggs and chicken meat containing fipronil, including processed foods made from them.

With regard to the current fipronil findings, utilisation rates of the ADI of 76 per cent and 24 per cent were estimated for children and adults, respectively, from the consumption data for the German population. ADI utilisation rates of up to 74 per cent were established for the various European consumer groups.

ADI stands for Acceptable Daily Intake and indicates the quantity of a substance which consumers can ingest every day of their lives without any recognisable health risk.

As the initial provisional estimation of the risk to consumers posed by the consumption of chicken eggs and chicken meat containing fipronil, including processed foods made from them, showed no exceedance of the acceptable daily intake levels over an entire lifetime, a health hazard is unlikely.

Further Reading

Go to our previous news item on this story by clicking here.