§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure the public do not contract poisioning through the consumption of eggs.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe Department issued public advice on 26 August 1988 not to consume raw eggs or uncooked meals made from them. In view of later epidemiological evidence suggesting some risk of food poisoning from eating lightly cooked eggs, we issued further advice to the public on 21 November 1988. Chief environmental health officers of local authorities have been advised by the Department on 2 September. The Government's chief medical officer reinforced this advice on radio and television in the days following that. This must be seen in the context of a consumption of 30 million eggs a day in the United Kingdom. Therefore the risk to any individual from eating an individual egg is very small.
It is clearly always safest to cook any food thoroughly and eggs are no exception to this general rule.