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Harare Bureau
THE government has dismissed claims quail eggs have medicinal properties saying the assertion was being made as a marketing gimmick.

The eggs have flooded the market with major supermarkets selling them for prices as high as $6 a crate of 30.

Stickers on the eggs read; “treat digestive tract disorder; helps with management of anaemia; known to help against tuberculosis, bronchial allergies, diabetes and vegetative-vascular dystonia; known to improve liver function; useful in management of arterial hypertension; helps restore sexual potency in men; promotes good memory, enhance brain activity; strengthens the immune system and slows down aging organs; improves skin colour; and improves physical and mental development in children”.

In an interview yesterday, Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Aldrin Musiiwa said this was misleading.

“I think that’s a marketing gimmick because the tests haven’t been done and it hasn’t been substantiated. Well, if people want to buy eggs, they may buy but to have health claimers, that’s very wrong. Whoever is telling them must then not mislead the public.

“They should simply tell them that the eggs are nice, not that they’re capable of performing all these health issues mentioned on their stickers,” said Deputy Minister Musiiwa.

He said the Ministry of Health and Child Care had not carried out tests to prove the claims true or false.

“As the Ministry of Health and Child Care we haven’t run the tests. As far as we’re concerned they don’t provide a health risk to the population. If it was a substance that causes danger to the public, then the ministry would have been in a hurry to run the tests. Eggs as food have got a lot of beneficial effects and I wouldn’t say the people who are rearing quail birds and selling the eggs haven’t done any research but I would like to understand that whatever they’re saying is just a marketing gimmick.”

He said his ministry would only act on the matter after engagement with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

Quail birds have been a hit in the country with some people rearing them for resale. Their eggs have also found their way into major supermarkets in Harare and Bulawayo.

The eggs are sold with prescriptions reading “take three eggs on the first day then five each morning for 14 to 21 days. Best when taken raw.”