Salmonella, the leading cause of food poisoning-related death, can survive most common egg cooking methods—including scrambled, over-easy, and sunny side up. Cross-contamination onto fingers, utensils, or kitchen surfaces may pose an additional threat.
Total Recall
Doctor's Note
Egg-borne Salmonella is a relatively new disease. Our grandparents could drink eggnog, and eat raw cookie dough, with wild abandon—without fear of joining the more than a thousand Americans who die every year from Salmonella poisoning. Before the industrial intensification of egg production, Salmonella Enteritidis was not even found in eggs in the United States. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, Salmonella Enteritidis-contaminated eggs were sickening an estimated 182,000 Americans annually. Factory farming practices, such as forced starvation molting, feeding live hens “spent hen meal,” and overcrowding hens into barren “battery” cages so small they can’t even spread their wings, have contributed to the epidemic of egg-borne Salmonella poisoning.
In fact, just today, a story broke on Good Morning America about Sparboe Farms—our country’s fifth largest egg producer and supplier (until today) for McDonald’s Egg McMuffins. An undercover investigation found what the FDA noted were serious violations of federal Salmonella regulations. See my other Factory Farming Practices videos for more on the subject.
For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Eggs, Cigarettes, and Atherosclerosis, and Why Is Selling Salmonella-Tainted Chicken Legal?
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here.
Previous Video
Next Video15 responses to “Total Recall”
Comment Etiquette
On NutritionFacts.org, you'll find a vibrant community of nutrition enthusiasts, health professionals, and many knowledgeable users seeking to discover the healthiest diet to eat for themselves and their families. As always, our goal is to foster conversations that are insightful, engaging, and most of all, helpful – from the nutrition beginners to the experts in our community.
To do this we need your help, so here are some basic guidelines to get you started.
The Short List
To help maintain and foster a welcoming atmosphere in our comments, please refrain from rude comments, name-calling, and responding to posts that break the rules (see our full Community Guidelines for more details). We will remove any posts in violation of our rules when we see it, which will, unfortunately, include any nicer comments that may have been made in response.
Be respectful and help out our staff and volunteer health supporters by actively not replying to comments that are breaking the rules. Instead, please flag or report them by submitting a ticket to our help desk. NutritionFacts.org is made up of an incredible staff and many dedicated volunteers that work hard to ensure that the comments section runs smoothly and we spend a great deal of time reading comments from our community members.
Have a correction or suggestion for video or blog? Please contact us to let us know. Submitting a correction this way will result in a quicker fix than commenting on a thread with a suggestion or correction.
Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check out all the videos on Salmonella and eggs.
When I was growing up, I ate raw cake batter and I never got sick from Salmonella. How do you explain that?
Egg-borne Salmonella is relatively new disease. Our grandparents could drink eggnog and eat raw cookie dough with wild abandon without fear of joining the more than a thousand Americans who die every year from Salmonella poisoning. Before the industrial intensification of egg production, Salmonella Enteritidis was not even found in eggs in the United States. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, Salmonella Enteritidis-contaminated eggs were sickening an estimated 182,000 Americans annually. Factory farming practices such as forced starvation molting, feeding live hens “spent hen meal,” and overcrowing hens into barren “battery” cages so small they can’t even spread their wings have contributed to the epidemic of egg-borne Salmonella poisoning.
In fact just today a story broke on Good Morning America about Sparboe Farms, our country’s fifth largest egg producer and supplier (until today) for McDonald’s Egg McMuffins. And undercover investigation found what the FDA noted were serious violations of federal Salmonella regulations. See my other Factory Farming Practices videos for more on the subject.
I when young would eat raw eggs ……….. never would I do or recommend that now !!
I’m a docent at a farm where schools come for field trips. I take kindergarteners through a chicken coop and I pick up a freshly laid egg and let each child touch it. Am I putting the children and myself at risk?
You could lower the risk as long as hands are washed well after handling the eggs. However, studies on hand washing in medical personnel show that we don’t do a very good job at washing our hands in that when we lather up we miss areas. I imagine if we studied kindergarteners it would be worse. So I would recommend avoiding the practice. I have two other concerns as a primary care physician. The first is that you may be encouraging kindergarteners and adults to consume eggs which is definitely not healthy. For further information see http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/is-one-egg-a-day-too-much/ and http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/chicken-eggs-and-inflammation/. My second is that the kindergarteners may not get an accurate picture of the conditions that most eggs are produced in this country. Field trips with the added expertise of docents are a great way to learn. Hopefully your farm can include some tours of plants growing and their value in human nutrition.
Please also check out my associated blog post, Poultry and Penis Cancer!
I think I read somewhere that salmonella is only in the egg white and not in the yolk. Is that correct?
The salmonella is typically found on the shell of the egg. When you crack it that’s how the inside of the egg may get exposed.
Doesn’t a low enough dose of bacterial infection, like salmonella, not cause issues? I’ve always understood it to be a matter of “how much” to be the issue. Like if I got a couple hundred salmonella bacteria in me, it should be fine unless I have a compromised immune system, but that if I have a significant amount of raw chicken, then we’re talking. No?
Yes of course, I am not a microbiologist but I do remember that from microbiology. I am not sure how much is needed to result in disease, not a copious amount I assume. If raw chicken touches something and you touch that surface, developing the disease is possible, and that’s usually how it spreads.
are organic eggs cage free good for you
Eggs are similar whether organic or not.
http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/eggs/
What about organic eggs- cookie dough still a fav here…
Could you please please please provide some research for the new trend “carnivorism” aka “primal diet”. Its a new scary trend of ex vegans (sv3rige on youtube interviews exvegans). Its about eating RAW animal products. I have red and watched your informations about factory farmed animal products and their contaminations with toxins and bacterias. This trend is about freshly slaughtered, grass fed meats or hunted animals.
Besides the fact that its utterly repelling I would love to have some profound thoughts to defend veganism. I think our climate could really not handle a trend like that. If their are not enough studies for a video, I would really appreciate at least some brief words per email. Thanks so much in advance! This platform and the book are truly my bible! THANK YOU from the bottom of my hearth!