BEIC comment on precautionary egg safety and handling advice

The Food Standards Agency has issued precautionary egg safety and handling advice in relation to a limited number of eggs with farm code 1UK11871 and best-before dates of 22, 23 and 24 September.

A very small number of these eggs may be contaminated with salmonella and as a precaution, although there is a low risk of illness, consumers are advised to cook these eggs thoroughly, as this will eliminate salmonella, should it be present. Only eggs with this farm code and these best-before dates are affected.

The British Egg Industry Council supports this precautionary advice.  

The UK egg industry has the most stringent food safety standards in the world. As part of the UK’s National Control Programme and the British Egg Industry Council’s Lion Quality scheme, egg farms and packing stations are rigorously sampled and tested and, if salmonella is found, those eggs cannot be sold for human consumption.

A small number of salmonella-positive samples were traced back to a limited number of farms in the South and one packing station. Once they were identified, the British Egg Industry Council took immediate action to suspend the farms concerned and remove any eggs from the food chain. The British Egg Industry Council has subsequently introduced additional, enhanced testing and auditing to minimise the risk of it happening again.