Egg drama

So, according to a certain egg supplier's web site, pasteurizing eggs does not kill salmonella.

From Eggology:

Pasteurization heats the egg to approximately 130˚F (any higher and the egg would cook), but heat won’t kill Salmonella until approximately 174˚F.

This is, as you might have suspected, not entirely true. First off, as I said in my previous post, salmonella dies when a product is heated to 150 degrees for 3.5 minutes. I also provided information in that post that tells us that salmonella does not only come from outside the hen.

This other site says that heating the eggs to 134 degrees for 3.5 minutes kills salmonella, too. And their eggs aren't cooking at that temperature either...so...

(feel free to insert your own rendition of, "Liar, liar, pants on fire...")

The USDA web site assures us, in fact, that any pasteurized egg product bearing the USDA seal has actually been pasteurized and all the salmonella beasties that might have been in it are, in fact, deceased. They have ceased to be! They are ex-salmonella!

Salmonella? Dead. Yes, dead.

Now, of course, that does not mean that salmonella cannot grow in a previously pasteurized product. There's still a chance that the product could become contaminated from something else -- like if you cut your rare hamburger in half and dip the knife in your newly made mayo. So, you still have to follow normal food safety precautions -- always use clean utensils, and pitch it after a week.

But we don't have to be slavishly brand loyal in order to stay safe from salmonella -- much as companies might wish it to be otherwise.