Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Egg Recall (Israel)!



New testing shows that eggs from at least 4 major egg suppliers in Israel are tainted with Dioxin. 10 egg suppliers were tested, but there are other egg suppliers that were not tested this time around.

 Dioxin is no joke, it is a known carcinogenic material, and can also cause reproductive damage, immune system damage, and more. It is a known toxin, that is a member of the "Dirty Dozen" persistant environmental pollutants.

Despite the fact that news outlets are saying this information is coming from the Ministry of Health, I cannot find a word about it on their website.

Eggs from the 4 suppliers that tested positive for dioxin are being removed from the marketplace, and efforts are underway to determine the source of the pollutant.

I will update as I get more information, but it is usually slow in coming. 

I do not have further directives. Some people are asking me to post a "don't panic" line. But I really don't know what to do. The testing was done on conventional eggs. I have been using organic eggs almost exclusively for a decade now, but since I do not know if organic eggs are tainted, I cannot recommend that as a way to deal with this problem. 

The best thing I can say for now is DO NOT BUY EGGS right now. It will take stores and suppliers some time to weed out the tainted eggs. They will have to check for codes on the eggs (they are not labeled with a brand for each farm) to figure out which ones are tainted. It will not be an instant process.

Personally I will be cooking without eggs until I know more. 

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15 comments:

  1. janiceApril 24, 2013 at 9:11 AM

    It is important to not get in a panic about this... you would have to have eaten eggs over a long period of time for it to do real damage - and the eggs are tested regularly so if it was a long term problem it would have been discovered earlier... so we do need to keep a sense of proportion about the damage it could have done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EsterApril 24, 2013 at 9:29 AM

      Actually, they had to send them to Holland for the Dioxin test, so it is not done regularly. The last time was in 2009 I believe.
      Nobody knows the extent of it right now.

      Delete
    2. UnknownApril 24, 2013 at 10:03 AM

      2008.

      http://www.ynet.co.il/home/0,7340,L-889-6071-31128191,00.html

      Delete
    3. UnknownApril 24, 2013 at 10:04 AM

      2008.

      http://www.ynet.co.il/home/0,7340,L-889-6071-31128191,00.html

      Delete
    4. EsterApril 24, 2013 at 4:13 PM

      Thank you for that! The last time they were tested was 2008. And it is possible there particular farmers never had their eggs tested for Dioxin before. I would not assume anything is fine... I personally am glad we have been using fewer and fewer eggs over time.

      Delete
  2. busymeApril 24, 2013 at 9:14 AM

    which are the 4? I need to check my fridge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EsterApril 24, 2013 at 9:30 AM

      That info was not released.
      If it is released, I will update, so check back later!

      Delete
  3. Rachel SelbyApril 24, 2013 at 10:00 AM

    I can hear the Vegan fairy calling my name...

    ReplyDelete
  4. GillianApril 24, 2013 at 10:21 AM

    This gives a good explanation about dioxin in the food chain. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/

    No reason to think that organic eggs can't be contaminated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EsterApril 24, 2013 at 10:38 AM

      Thanks for the link. As I said above, I have no way to determine if organic eggs are affected. In Israel the testing is pretty sporadic. I did mention we'll be cooking without eggs for now. I did not say that organic eggs are the answer, did I?

      Delete
  5. GillianApril 24, 2013 at 10:24 AM

    From an EU website: "Which food products are most affected?
    In general, food of animal origin contributes to about 80% of the overall human exposure. The contamination can vary widely depending on the origin of the foodstuff. Meat, eggs, milk, farmed fish and other food products may be contaminated above background levels by dioxins from feedingstuffs. Such contamination may be due to a high level of local environmental contamination, for example from a local waste incinerator, to incidents, such as in 1999 in Belgium, or to a high content of dioxins in fishmeal and fish oil. Wild fish from certain polluted
    areas may be highly contaminated.
    Is dioxin contamination getting worse?
    From the available data it appears that the background exposure to dioxin and dioxin-like PCBs of the European population has decreased over the last 10 years."

    ReplyDelete
  6. AmaliaApril 24, 2013 at 2:31 PM

    I called the Health Ministry's hotline and the nice lady there said that the four poultry farms in question have been shut down and are not selling eggs. She did not have the names of farms or the date on which this happened. I asked her to pass along that this is causing somewhat of a panic online and that they may wish to get ahead of that and come out with some sort of statement.
    They also told me that there is no danger connected with the consumption of eggs from authorized food vendors. i.e. don't buy eggs from a guy on the side of the road or in a dark alley.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownApril 24, 2013 at 3:48 PM

    great site, great initiative. kol hakovod.

    ReplyDelete
  8. wellnessfromwithinApril 25, 2013 at 3:28 PM

    wish there was a way to find out about organic eggs. btw dioxin is in non organic tampons, fyi

    ReplyDelete

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