Egg producers say fears over whether eggs are refrigerated or not in supermarkets are unwarranted.

Recent media reports have suggested not refrigerating eggs in supermarkets could lead to an increased risk of salmonella outbreaks.

However, Brian Ahmed, of the Victorian Farmers Federation egg group, said that risk only materialised when the egg was cracked open.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 35 seconds 3 m 35 s Bryan Ahmed from the Victorian Farmers Federation discusses the need to refrigerate eggs ( Nikolai Beilharz ) Download 1.6 MB

"It's important to refrigerate eggs, but it's not critical," he said.

"What people must realise is that once the egg has been taken out of the shell and a product has been made out of it, especially raw egg products, that's when it becomes critical that those products are refrigerated."

Mr Ahmed said with the growing popularity of cooking shows, more consumers were making products from raw eggs.

But those foods could be high risk if kept for too long after preparation, he said.