The report, published today by the Food Safety Association (FSA), shows that just one in every 290 boxes of six eggs on sale has any salmonella contamination, compared with 1 in 100 in a 1995/96 survey.
"This is very reassuring and good news for the consumer," said Dr Judith Hilton, head of FSA's microbiological safety division. "Basically, if you're buying UK-produced eggs from shops and markets, the possibility of any salmonella contamination is very low indeed and significantly lower today than in the mid-1990s. The UK egg industry is to be congratulated on the excellent progress made."
The survey comes at the right time for the UK's poultry industry. Meat scares have made consumers unsure about the safety of poultry products - only this week, the Dutch government ordered the culling of 600 ducks on a farm after routine blood tests showed signs of antibodies to a mild strain of bird flu.
This followed last Saturday's announcement that the Dutch government had decided to cull all 22,000 chickens at a farm in Eemsmond in the northeast of the country. The Dutch are determined to ensure that the bird virus does not return - last year a mild form of the virus mutated into an aggressive variant, leading to the slaughter of a quarter of all Dutch poultry at a cost of hundreds of millions of euros. Some 30.7 million birds in total had to be slaughtered.
Europe as a whole is still at heightened alert following the recent bird flu epidemic that devastated parts of Asia. Last month, the European Parliament voted to create a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), following growing public concern over animal disease epidemics.
"Outbreaks like SARS in 2003 and bird flu this year have been a wake-up call," said David Byrne, the European Commissioner for health and consumer protection.
The FSA survey sampled UK-produced eggs on sale in shops and markets. There were no statistically significant differences in the number of contaminated boxes from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, or between eggs from the different production types or schemes.
But as the survey shows, although the chances of eggs being contaminated are now very low, eggs cannot be guaranteed to be salmonella-free, whatever the source or type. This is particularly important for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, babies and toddlers, pregnant women, and people who are already unwell and more vulnerable to infection.
In 1998 a programme was set up to vaccinate UK laying hens against a common type of salmonella (Salmonella Enteritidis) causing human illness. From the late 1990s onwards there followed a steady decrease in the number of cases of human illness from this type of salmonella. This success has continued and the number of reported Salmonella Enteritidis cases is now at its lowest level since the late 1980s.
In its 2001 report on salmonella in eggs, the UK government's advisory committee on the microbiological safety of food concluded that, in all probability, this success was due mainly to the impact of the vaccination programme. Currently, at least 80 per cent of all laying hens in the UK are vaccinated against Salmonella Enteritidis.
This latest survey involved a total of 28,518 eggs tested in samples/boxes of six. All types of retail eggs were included in the survey, with eggs from caged production accounting for 50 per cent of total eggs sampled, free-range eggs 16.9 per cent, barn eggs 16.5 per cent and organic eggs 16.6 per cent.