I was tucking into my poached eggs as I heard the news today that eggs are now good for you again – official. It's about time.

(The secret of a good poached egg, by the way, is to get the spouse to cook them. He uses a poacher – every time he tries to do it in water, like a proper chef, it's a disaster.)

To correct any misapprehension, I did not say: "Don't eat eggs." Twenty years ago last December, I warned the people of the UK, when I was minister for public health, that we had a problem with eggs and that eating them undercooked (like my poached version) might do you in.

To be fair, we had 30,000 known cases of salmonella infection that year and about 60 fatalities.

A decade later, the British egg industry had sorted itself out, spending millions to clean up their act. However, the cooks and chefs and housewives of this country (or should that be homemakers?) had not caught up, and still shunned this magnificent product for fear of its effect on heart disease. That, and the fact that most people couldn't boil an egg right if they tried, let alone bake a cake or raise a souffle.

So, I'm delighted that the latest study shows that eating eggs may be good for you – or at least, no longer bad for you. They are cheap, nutritious and great with bits of toast. Eat up, say I! Eat up!