Anyone buying an egg from next week will be able to assure themselves that it has passed stringent new quality controls.
Under a new quality assurance scheme for eggs developed by An Bord Bia, eggs produced under it will be individually stamped with a quality logo, their "best-before" date and the code of the house on the farm where they were produced.
According to Dr Patrick Wall, the chief executive of the Food Safety Authority who was on the technical committee which set up the scheme, it is "a marvellous breakthrough for the industry and for the Irish consumer, and I hope that the poultry industry will follow suit".
Mr Michael Duffy, the chief executive of An Bord Bia, said at the launch of the scheme in Dublin yesterday that Ireland was now one of only four European states which had an EU-approved salmonella control plan. The others are Finland, Denmark and Sweden, but only Ireland would carry out monthly checks for salmonella enteritidis.
The specially stamped eggs from the qualified laying units will be in the shops next week.
The Republic produces about 500 million eggs each year, worth £22 million at the farm gate, but almost 40 per cent of the eggs consumed here annually are imported, mainly from the North. The producers there can become part of the Quality Assurance Scheme. The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, said the scheme was the high way to the future for marketing food products. Food safety was of critical importance and formed a central feature of the scheme.