Chicken and other poultry are safe to eat if cooked properly, but no birds from flocks with bird flu should enter the food chain, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The two UN agencies made the remarks in a joint statement, released to national food safety authorities, to clarify food safety concerns surrounding bird flu.

In areas where there have been no bird flu outbreaks in poultry, there is no risk that consumers will be exposed to the virus via the handling or consumption of poultry or poultry products, the statement said.

"Cooking of poultry (e.g. chicken, ducks, geese, turkeys and guinea-fowl) at or above 70 degrees Celsius throughout the product, so that absolutely no meat remains raw and red, is a safe measure to kill the H5N1 virus in areas with outbreaks in poultry," said the two UN agencies.

This ensures that any traces of the virus, had the bird been infected and accidentally entered the foodchain, are killed, they said.

To date, there is no epidemiological evidence that people have become infected after eating contaminated poultry meat that has been properly cooked, said the agencies.

Eggs from areas with outbreaks in poultry should not be consumed raw or partially cooked, the statement advised.

But proper cooking "inactivates" the virus present inside eggs, and pasteurization used by the industry for liquid egg products is also effective in inactivating the virus, said the statement.

To date, there is no epidemiological evidence to suggest that people have been infected with bird flu by consumption of eggs or egg products.

Source: Xinhua