Egg Safety

Although very, very few eggs carry internal bacterial infection at the beginning of their production cycles, through improper handling or cooking eggs can become contaminated. Most often, the bacteria Salmonella enteritidis, which can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, are found to be the culprit. As well as being contracted through improper handling or cooking, these virulent bacteria can survive and grow in hens and subsequently be transmitted to the egg. This occurs very rarely—about 1 in 20,000 eggs—but it indicates that all eggs should be handled properly. The yolk of the egg is generally the point of infection, with the white almost never becoming infected. The bacteria rarely cause fatalities in healthy adults but can cause extremely serious health complications in infants and small children, pregnant women, the infirm, those with compromised immune systems, and the elderly.