Europe’s latest food scandal has widened after the European commission announced that a total of 15 EU states, plus Switzerland and Hong Kong, are now known to have received egg products contaminated by an insecticide harmful to human health.

A spokeswoman in Brussels said the situation was “evolving by the day”, as criminal investigators continued to hold two men arrested on Thursday for fraud following a series of raids in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The EU countries known to be affected by the scandal are Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Britain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Denmark. Products in British supermarkets were removed on Thursday after it was discovered that the initial Food Standards Agency claim that 21,000 contaminated eggs had hit the UK was a major underestimate. The FSA now says the figure is more like 700,000.

Following the arrests of the two directors of a Dutch firm, Chickfriend, which is believed to have supplied the banned anti-lice agent to farmers, a third man, whose home was raided by investigators, spoke to Dutch media on Friday to insist upon his innocence.

Nick Hermens, 28, said he had cut links in February 2016 with the owners of the company implicated in the scandal, due to his concerns about the legality of their business, although his claims could not be verified.

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