THE future is uncertain for Cumbrian egg producers, as the scandal over contaminated eggs from Europe leave farmers uncertain over how the public will react.

Although British eggs are not affected by the contamination - which has its roots in the use of toxic insecticide in the Netherlands - producers fear that the bad news around eggs could put consumers off buying them altogether.

UK farmers are keen to remind the public that it is safe to purchase British free range shelled eggs.

David Brass, of Lakes Free Range Egg Company, said: "We don't really have a clue what the impact could be yet. You would think logic would say that, as UK eggs aren't effected, people who didn't previously would buy UK eggs now to be safe, which would be a boost for us.

"However bad news is often just bad news. People may just stop buying eggs. It shouldn't have a negative effect on us, but what people are seeing is eggs being thrown into a skip on the BBC or ITV, and you don;t know if they'll take away from that the fact that British eggs are safe.

"One good thing is that this is not a UK problem. All of the problems we have had in the egg industry in the last five years have been foreign problems.

"This one is growing though. It's got legs.Once you've dumped a few contaminated eggs in with a tonne of liquid egg you don't know where it will get to. And over sixty per cent of liquid egg in the UK is from abroad."

Supermarkets have warned that the contamination could be far wider spread than regulators have admitted.

The Food Standards Agency has warned that their could be as many as 700,000 eggs potentially containing toxic insecticide in the country.

Supermarkets in Kendal have confirmed that they have not recalled any shelved eggs from their stores, as they only stock British eggs that are safe.

Some egg products have been recalled in the stores, with Asda taking some of its egg salad products off the shelves.