While authorities world-wide are working towards safety in the food chain, the results of the study suggest that consumer information and warnings are not currently working as well as was originally intended.

According to research carried out by market researchers TNS, nine out of ten American consumers said they are as concerned or more concerned than last year about contracting food-borne illnesses such as E. coli and listeria, but are unsure about what foods posed a threat.

Most of the 2,500 participants surveyed said that their fears were hightened by excessive coverage of food safety issues, with 96 per cent citing media reports as a major source of worry.

Many of them also had some correct ideas about potential sources of disease, and 81 per cent of consumers questioned knew that eggs, meat and uncooked vegetables are the most hazardous foods.

However, they were confused about how they should cook and eat these products, the study said.

For example, about half of Americans said that when eating eggs they prefer recipes that contain the product when it is raw or undercooked. Eggs Benedict and fried eggs "sunny side up" were the most popular egg dish of 57 per cent of participants.

Most of those questioned were also totally unaware of how many cases of food-borne diseases break out every year, as well as how often the incidences lead to death.

Opinion seems to be equally muddled on the other side of the ocean, with 67 per cent of UK consumers saying they do not understand or ignore the plethora of food safety information available.

Chris Woodcock, the managing director of Razor Public Relations, which carried out the survey, said that consumers are becoming confused.

"Ironically, as the EU and UK regulatory and advisory authorities report soaring numbers of recall and safety reports in the last year, their effectiveness in terms of consumer safety seems to be diminishing," he said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 76 million cases of food-borne disease occur each year in the US, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths annually.

Food-borne infections are caused by the bacteria salmonella, E. coli and campylobacter, and by a group of viruses called calicivirus, also known as the Norwalk and Norwalk-like viruses, the CDC said.

The most severe infections tend to occur in the very old, the very young, those who have an illness already that reduces their immune system function, and in healthy people exposed to a very high dose of a harmful organism.