Raw eggs,
minus the risk: Area firm makes cookie dough safe
Source of Article: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=106221
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National Pasteurized Eggs,
Inc.
A bad egg can ruin a holiday.
Consumers hoping to ring in the season with a cup of traditional eggnog or a
spoonful of Christmas cookie dough often have had to balance fears that raw
eggs could transform a night of celebration into hours of sickness from
salmonella poisoning.
But an area company is helping to change all that. National Pasteurized Eggs,
Inc., in south suburban Lansing, produces
about a million pasteurized eggs each day, which are shipped out to customers
across North America. The patented process,
one of the first for egg pasteurization, kills all of the bacteria, including
salmonella.
“You can crack the (pasteurized) eggs and eat them raw like
Rocky," without worrying about getting sick, said Gregory M. West,
president of the company, comparing the eggs to other animal products that
have long been pasteurized. “Most people would never even think of drinking
raw milk as their standard because of the risk.”
Approximately one in 10,000 eggs is contaminated with salmonella, West said,
pointing out that this is roughly the same number of eggs on display at a
major grocery chain.
Typically, 40,000 cases of salmonella poisoning are reported in the United States
each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but
the actual number may be more than thirty times greater since mild cases
aren’t diagnosed or reported. Symptoms can include diarrhea, fever and
abdominal cramps, lasting four to seven days.
Sometimes, though, the infection can spread from the intestines to the blood
stream and into other parts of the body, possibly causing death, according to
the CDC, which cautions that the elderly, infants and people with impaired
immune symptoms are more likely to see these severe effects. About 400 people
die each year from the salmonella infection.
Contaminated eggs are the leading cause of salmonella, which is the top cause
for food-borne illness, West said, making pasteurized eggs the logical choice
for many.
“It’s like an airbag in the car,” said Matthew Botos,
the former director of the Illinois
Center for Food Safety
and Technology and a food safety consultant. “Everybody should wear a
seatbelt, but you feel much safer when you have an airbag.”
This “airbag” of egg safety was first developed in 1985, following a series
of salmonella outbreaks. Today, the eggs are produced with the brand name
Davidson’s Safest Choice and distributed across the United States, Mexico
and Canada,
with more international growth planned for the future. The process (see audio
slideshow) includes an hour spent in a hot water bath, just warm enough to
kill the bacteria without cooking the eggs. “It’s like a giant Jacuzzi,” West
said. “You have a very efficient, more cost effective method of pasteurizing
eggs, giving us the opportunity to pasteurize a lot more eggs than otherwise
could have been expected.”
The eggs are typically marked up in price by 25 to 50 percent in the
marketplace, but West said they’re worth the splurge, even in tough economic
times.
“You can’t take food safety away as your answer to cost savings,” West said,
emphasizing the food industry, in particular. “If you’re going to be in the
food business, food safety needs to be your priority in recessionary times
and in good times. You will have bad times if you have a food-borne
illness.”
Another group that should stick to pasteurized eggs, according to West, is
the 35 percent of people who are highly susceptible to the bacteria,
including children, the elderly and pregnant women.
“Some of our biggest customers are moms with little kids because the moms
know they’re not going to serve up salmonella when they serve up the eggs,”
West said, adding that eliminating the bacteria can also extend shelf life
and enhance taste. “A pasteurized egg, 40 days after the hen has laid it,
tastes as good the first five days. A regular egg has diminished in flavor
profile every day since the first three days.”
And, as holiday baking season approaches, West said the priority now is
raising awareness about the benefits of pasteurized eggs for consumers.
“They know their milk is pasteurized, they know their juice is pasteurized,
they know their cheeses, butters are all pasteurized, and they know that’s
there for safety. So they assume their eggs are pasteurized,” West
said. “And they’re not.”
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