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I've been listening to radio interviews with my colleague Dr Judith Hilton, the Agency's head of  microbiological safety, reassuring us that we can continue to eat poultry and egg products, despite bird flu.

Although there doesn't seem to have been a panic by the media or consumers about the safety of eating poultry and eggs, people naturally look to the FSA and other bodies for reassurance. Understandably at times like this, our advice can come under scrutiny, and people have asked how we can be confident about the risk posed  by 'new diseases'. Bird flu isn't of course a new disease, but H5N1 strains of it are, since we've only known about them since 1997.

As far as bird flu goes, the science shows that it isn't contracted by eating food. Flu viruses rely on  receptors in the body to cause illness and those that flu latch onto are generally found in the respiratory tract. Those people who have contracted bird flu - currently about 270 worldwide - have been in very close  contact with sick birds.

People have been drawing comparisons between the advice about bird flu and the advice issued when BSE first hit the headlines. They've also been asking whether advice from Government scientists can be trusted. We thoroughly assessed the available evidence to establish our advice. This includes seeking the views of independent expert advisers. Our advice is supported by what’s being issued by worldwide bodies such as the World Health Organization.

But back to the difference between bird flu and BSE. I think with BSE, there wasn't much to go on in the early days (we didn't know much about prions, the agent believed to be behind BSE and other TSEs), whereas lots is known about the flu virus, which fascinates scientists.

Although it's unlikely that a product harbouring the bird flu virus would ever reach the UK food chain, there are a number of factors that would stop someone becoming infected with it, even if they did eat an affected product.

Firstly, cooking meat thoroughly is more than enough to kill the virus.

Secondly, the body has a number of other barriers that would protect us, including saliva, gastric acids and the lack of suitable receptors in the gut.

The FSA continues to work with other parts of Government to ensure that people are protected from bird flu,  and the threat is taken seriously. However, as my colleague Dr Hilton advised earlier, there's no reason why  people shouldn't tuck into a turkey dinner or boiled egg as usual.