Safe Ways to Eat Eggs

Here are a few things to have in mind before you stop eating eggs because of the recall:

1. Know where your eggs are from.
Check your eggs for recalls. As long as your eggs are not associated with these two farms—Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms— they should be fine. Try to buy only local eggs and often organic. This doesn’t guarantee that they are safer but organic standards make it less likely that hens have been fed contaminated feed and buying local makes it easier to trace eggs back to a farm that may have a contamination problem.


2. Cooking eggs kills Salmonella.
If you cook an egg thoroughly (no runny yolks) to 160 degrees F or higher, or until both the white and the yolk are firm, it should be safe to eat. This means hard-boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and eggs in baked goods should not pose a threat. Pasteurization will also kill bacteria and most products that use raw eggs (such as mayonnaise, raw cookie dough, ice cream, etc.) use pasteurized eggs. If you are making these things at home, though, make sure your eggs are safe.


3. Keep your refrigerator at the right temperature
Keeping foods at below 40 degrees F greatly reduces the growth of bacteria.


4. Make breakfast at home.
Cooking at home doesn’t guarantee you won’t ever get a foodborne illness, but if you know the proper food-safety measures you are less likely to get sick from the five most common foodborne illnesses.

5. Check your kitchen for other recalled foods.
Check the FDA website to find out what other products have been recalled. In the past few days there have also been major recalls of pistachio nuts, alfalfa sprouts and mamey fruit pulp, all related to Salmonella contamination.


Sources: Shine and Lisa Gosselin from Eating Well