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Q: 

Is it safe to eat eggs, no matter how they are cooked?

By September 4, 2008 - 2:32pm
 
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With all the talk about eating raw foods and their safety, I started wondering about the eggs I eat in the morning (either at home or in a restaurant).

I never thought of this, but the eggs can be considered partially raw, if they are "sunny side up" (yoke runny), right?

Is it safe to eat this type of egg, or do they need to be fully cooked ("over easy") or even scrambled?

Add a Comment3 Comments

EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

Chances of most eggs to have salmonella are 1/20,000 - 1/30,000

Just keep them refrigerated and stay clean while handling them and you should be fine.

Odds of dying to drowning are 1 in 9,641. You have a much better chance at that than catching salmonella and living. I'm assuming you're in good health of course and not an immune system compromised individual.

June 1, 2012 - 2:01pm
EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

This is a great question! I've often wondered about it myself, although in recent years I've been so paranoid about this issue that I won't let my kids eat cookie dough when I'm making cookies from scratch, much less even get near raw eggs. (Makes me sad, because I remember great childhood memories of licking the batter from spatulas and spoons whenever I was in my grandmother's kitchen while she was baking all kinds of goodies.)

September 5, 2008 - 12:42pm

This is a toughie!

The Egg Safety Center just says that, as long as the egg has been properly stored and handled, it should be fine. There's no way to tell, without testing, whether or not the egg is infected.

But (there's always one in every crowd), the Univ. of Arizona Agricultural Sciences Extension says that eggs should be fully cooked.

My hubby likes his eggs sunny side up and mostly cooked (not runny), while I prefer mine scrambled. Over easy is not as well cooked as over hard. I used to like Eggs Benedict (poached) and soft-cooked eggs (so very elegant), until the salmonella warnings of recent years.

In some restaurants where the Caesar salad dressing USED to be made at the table with raw egg, I haven't seen it done in ages. I always thought the lemon juice was acidic enough to "kill" any bacteria...then again, the lemon (skin) could carry e-coli!!

Well, it's all probably up to your own good judgement what to choose. Meanwhile, here are a few FAQs for you:

Egg Safety Center FAQs

American Egg Board Egg Safety

Food Safety, Preparation and Storage Tips
Cooperative Extension, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, the University of Arizona

September 4, 2008 - 4:34pm
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