FDA says new egg safety rules will prevent thousands of salmonella illnesses

Egg rules could prevent thousands of illnesses

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration says egg safety rules that just took effect could prevent thousands of cases of salmonella poisoning each year.

The new rules were announced by the Obama administration last year and go into effect Friday. The FDA says they could reduce the number of salmonella illnesses by nearly 60 percent.

The government will now require some egg producers to do more testing for salmonella and large-scale producers will have to constantly refrigerate eggs while they are stored and transported. The egg industry says many egg farmers have already been following the rules for years.

The FDA said egg safety rules implemented in the 1990s limited the growth of bacteria but didn’t prevent contamination in many cases.