British Lion eggs

Some 38 egg SKUs sold through five different retaulers are now subject to the safety advice

The FSA has updated and extended its precautionary safety and handling advice for a raft of eggs sold in the mults, due to possible links to a salmonella contamination.

After a second update in a week on Tuesday, a total of 38 egg SKUs supplied by producer LJ Fairburn, carrying the 0UK15270, 1UK15270 and 3UK15270 batch codes were now subject to the advice. The FSA originally published its safety advice last month, before adding further affected SKUs to its notice last week.

The regulator said “a very small” number of the eggs, sourced from Fairburn’s Barfen Farm in Lincolnshire, may have been contaminated with salmonella. It is advising consumers to follow good hygiene by storing the eggs in the fridge and cooking them thoroughly.

Eggs potentially affected include Fairburn-branded lines sold through Costco, Morrisons and Asda and selected own label eggs sold through Asda, Costco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Aldi with best before dates up to 1 December.

A spokeswoman for LJ Fairburn told The Grocer last month it had “identified a potential salmonella issue with free-range birds” at the farm.

“We operate rigorous and enhanced salmonella testing regimes, above the requirements of legislation, which alerted us to this problem,” she added.

Following the updated FSA advice this week, she added: “As a responsible producer, we have undertaken further tests on the site which have identified an additional number of eggs could have been affected. The original precautionary advice has therefore been extended to cover these other products.”