EATING sunny-side-up eggs could soon have a new benefit of topping up important vitamins during the dark winter months, according to new research.

In the summer the sun provides the main source of vitamin D, but many people in the UK are left with low levels during the winter.

Researchers claim new “sunshine eggs” – eggs enriched in vitamin D – could help make up for this shortfall by altering the food given to hens. PhD student Estelle Rickelton, from the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Innovation at Newcastle University, said: “Many people in the UK have low levels of vitamin D in winter, when the height of the sun is too low for our bodies to make it.

“Since we can’t rely on our diets, or the winter sun, to provide adequate amounts there is an urgent need to explore enriched foods as a way to increase vitamin D intake.

“Eggs are a natural source of the vitamin, so we think that ‘sunshine eggs’ that are enriched with vitamin D could offer a convenient way for people to increase their intake of this essential vitamin.

“The vitamin D in eggs is derived from the hens’ diet and there is well established evidence now that feeding hens additional vitamin D is both very safe and results in eggs with higher vitamin D.”

The study will be conducted from January to April 2017 and will involve the participants consuming up to seven eggs a week for eight weeks.

Dr Tom Hill, senior lecturer in nutrition, said: “The new government recommendations on vitamin D represent a major shift from the previous advice which assumed that sunlight provided all the vitamin D we need.

“Many people don’t take supplements for various reasons so there is attraction in exploring the potential for enriching a well-established cheap, natural and nutritious food such as eggs which have been part of the British diet for years.”