More than 20,000 European eggs from farms at the centre of a contamination scarehave been sold and consumed in Britain, it has emerged.

The eggs were imported to the UK between March and June, the Food Standards Agency said.

A spokesman admitted that the infected products would no longer be within their expiry date, meaning they would have already been eaten.

The FSA insisted there was “unlikely” to be a risk to public health but admitted it was still investigating the distribution of the eggs.

Aldi and Lidl stores in Germany have already taken millions of eggs off shelves amid fears they are tainted with traces of the pesticide Fipronil.