The French agriculture minister says 13 batches of contaminated eggs were delivered from the Netherlands to France in July.

We don’t know how many eggs, but they were all tainted with the insecticide fipronil .. used to control lice and fleas.

The amount of the toxin on the eggs is higher than the recommended amount for children.

The effects include vertigo, nausea and, vomiting, according to toxicologist Alfred Bernard who pointed out that lethal cases are very rare: “Maybe one case every thirty years. It would really need to be consumed in huge doses.”

The affected eggs were delivered to two food factories in the west of France that use eggs for ingredients.

It emerged last week that a pest controller used fipronil at Dutch poultry companies over the last year.

Millions of eggs have been taken off the shelves in Germany and the Netherlands as a precaution.

Prosecutors in both countries are reported to have opened investigations into possible criminal offences.