About a thousand people flocked to the small Belgian town of Malmedy on Tuesday to eat a giant omelette made of 6,500 eggs, despite the country being at the centre of a scandal involving tainted eggs.
Belgium became the first country last month to officially notify the EU's food safety alert system of the presence of eggs contaminated by the insecticide fipronil, followed by the Netherlands and Germany.
The insecticide, which can harm human health, has since been discovered in eggs in 14 other
European countries since the scandal came to light on August 1 and has even been found as far afield as Hong Kong. It has forced millions of eggs to be removed from supermarket shelves and the closure of more than 150 farms in the Netherlands.
The local branch of the World Giant Omelette Brotherhood has been organising the festival in Malmedy for more than 20 years.
"We have total confidence in our local products, our suppliers are local and they fulfilled every health guarantee we asked of them since the beginning," Bourguignon said.
Made simply with eggs, bacon, oil and chives, and cooked over a wood fire, the omelette has been a fixture of the annual festival since the 1990s when Belgium was hit with a similar scandal -- over chicken and eggs contaminated with dioxin, a known carcinogen.
"The media said you needed to eat eight eggs a day" for the insecticide to affect your health, local volunteer Gabiche Chleck said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Belgium became the first country last month to officially notify the EU's food safety alert system of the presence of eggs contaminated by the insecticide fipronil, followed by the Netherlands and Germany.
The insecticide, which can harm human health, has since been discovered in eggs in 14 other
European countries since the scandal came to light on August 1 and has even been found as far afield as Hong Kong. It has forced millions of eggs to be removed from supermarket shelves and the closure of more than 150 farms in the Netherlands.
Photo Credit: AFP
The local branch of the World Giant Omelette Brotherhood has been organising the festival in Malmedy for more than 20 years.
Photo Credit: AFP
"We have total confidence in our local products, our suppliers are local and they fulfilled every health guarantee we asked of them since the beginning," Bourguignon said.
Photo Credit: AFP
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Made simply with eggs, bacon, oil and chives, and cooked over a wood fire, the omelette has been a fixture of the annual festival since the 1990s when Belgium was hit with a similar scandal -- over chicken and eggs contaminated with dioxin, a known carcinogen.
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"The media said you needed to eat eight eggs a day" for the insecticide to affect your health, local volunteer Gabiche Chleck said.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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