The Spanish Ministry for Agriculture has discredited a Food Standards Agency (FSA) report which states that one in every eight Spanish egg boxes tested positive for salmonella in a survey of non-UK eggs.
According to the Daily Mail and the Sunday Mirror, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) claimed that the FSA data was outdated, inaccurate and commercially driven to disrupt the Spanish export market.
The MAPA spokesperson argued that the FSA report, published on 15 November, was based on samples taken in 2005-2006 from one packing centre in Valladolid which packages eggs from three farms – out of a total of 1,100 farms that export eggs.
But Andrew Wadge, director of food safety at FSA stated: “The vast majority of eggs we eat in the UK are salmonella-free. However, this survey shows that problems with salmonella in [imported] eggs have not gone away.”