UK authorities have raised the number of salmonella linked to imported eggs to 474 after identifying two new clusters. The outbreak has sickened close to 500 people, and more than a third of those ill in the UK have needed hospital care.
The UK Health Security Agency said it had reported 207 cases last week before the total was increased to 259 and then to 474. Two deaths have been recorded, and the investigations go back to cases as far as August 2025.
UK Health Security Agency clusters
The UK outbreak involves three near-identical genetic clusters called t5.9411, t0.24068 and t5.9765. Investigators have linked 259 confirmed cases and one death to t5.9411, 38 confirmed cases and one death to t5.9765, and 177 confirmed cases to t0.24068.
Most cases have been recorded in recent weeks and months, but some date back a year. The majority of cases have been in England, with many in London and Yorkshire and Humber, and there have been a small number in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Eating out and imported eggs
Experts said people have fallen sick after eating out rather than cooking eggs at home. That pattern points to a food-chain exposure outside the domestic kitchen, which is why investigators are tracing the outbreak through imported eggs rather than treating it as isolated household illness.
Cases of salmonella are being seen in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands as well. Investigations in the Netherlands suggest a link with chicken meat rather than eggs, which complicates the imported-eggs explanation and shows that the wider European picture is not moving in one direction.
British Lion and Laid in Britain
Experts advise that it is safe to buy and eat eggs that have a British Lion mark or are produced under the Laid in Britain egg assurance scheme. For people who have been eating out, the practical step is to look for that mark when buying eggs and to keep following the investigation as the case total keeps moving.
