New Year’s Resolutions Need Proper Handling

| Safe Handling

On January 1^st of every year, people across the nation make New Year’s resolutions to start eating better and exercising more. Eggs are all‐natural, low calorie, and full of vitamins and minerals. The nutrients in eggs can play a role in weight management and muscle strength, which makes it a great food to eat for breakfast or after a hard workout. One of the most popular ways to fix eggs by hard-boiling them (The recipe can be found below, thanks to the American Egg Board). Hard-boiled eggs are easy to transport and can be easily grabbed out of the refrigerator for a quick, healthy snack. One of the most popular questions asked is, “How long can I keep boiled eggs in the refrigerator before they are unsafe to eat?” When hard boiling eggs, the protective layer put on right before the hen lays it, called the cuticle, is removed, making it easier for bacteria to get in the egg through the thousands of tiny pores on the egg shell while they sit in the refrigerator. Shortly after cooking, hard-boiled eggs should be refrigerated in their shells and used within 1 week.

Basic Hard Boiled Eggs

• Place eggs in saucepan large enough to hold them in single layer. Add cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch. Heat over high heat just to boiling. Remove from burner. Cover pan.
• Let eggs stand in hot water about 12 minutes for large eggs (9 minutes for medium eggs; 15 minutes for extra large).
• Drain immediately and serve warm or cool completely under cold running water or in bowl of ice water, then refrigerate.

Krista Eberle
Director of Food Safety Programs
United Egg Producers
Read More »

Use Egg Product Safety to Cut Your Risk for Foodborne Illness

| Safe Handling

Food safety can present a challenge during the holiday season as it’s probably not the first thing you think about when making holiday goodies. In order to protect you and your guests from food-borne illnesses, it is important to follow certain safety measures when cooking with eggs, including preventing cross contamination and consuming raw or undercooked dishes that contain eggs.

One way to cook safely with eggs is by using egg products. The term “egg products” refers to eggs that have been pasteurized, or exposed to elevated temperatures for a period of time sufficient to destroy certain microorganisms. Egg products can come in many forms including liquid and dried whole eggs, egg whites, and egg yolks. The most common form of egg products you may see in your grocery store are liquid egg whites, typically found in the refrigerated section next to all the cartoned eggs. Egg products are mostly used in baking and cooking where there is a chance that the product is not heated up high enough to completely destroy any food-borne microorganisms, like Salmonella Enteritidis. Some common holiday entrées that you could use egg products include casseroles, soufflés, deviled eggs, cookies, meringues and puddings.

When cooking this holiday season, it is always important to remember that the internal temperature of any product you cook this holiday season reaches 160°F. The Egg Safety Center and USDA does not recommend eating raw shell eggs that are not cooked or undercooked due to the possibility that Salmonella bacteria may be present. So if you plan on sneaking a few spoonfuls of that wonderful chocolate chip cookie dough while baking this holiday season, it may be wise to use egg products instead of raw eggs to avoid contracting a food-borne illness.

 
Read More »

Breaking Down the Egg Safety Rule: Diversion of eggs from the table egg market

| Industry 101

The main goal of the FDA Egg Safety Rule is to reduce the number of human Salmonella Enteritidis infections from eggs. The required preventative measures discussed in the last few blogs do just that—reduce and/or prevent the transmission of SE onto the farm and therefore significantly lowering the risk foodborne illness from contaminated eggs.

The Egg Safety Rule also requires testing of the poultry house environment to establish the effectiveness of the required SE preventative measures—chick procurement, biosecurity, pest control, and cleaning and disinfection—and to gain information on the SE status of the farm. Testing of the environment takes place at three periods during the laying hen’s life cycle-14-16 weeks, 40-45 weeks, and 4-6 weeks after molting. These periods signify the times during the life cycle that, if present in the bird, SE will be shed at the highest concentration in the environment.

If any samples are found positive during environmental testing, egg producers are required to do additional testing and take immediate action to assure that SE contaminated eggs do not reach consumers. Egg testing takes place over eight weeks to ensure eggs produced are negative for SE. Once the eggs are deemed safe for consumption, they are directed back into the market.

Egg producers continue to work hard to ensure proper implementation of the Egg Safety Rule and other food safety practices to ensure consumers are receiving a safe, high quality product!
Read More »