Food Safety Experts Urge Tossing Cracked Eggs Over 1.35 Million Annual Salmonella Cases
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 2
Food Safety Experts Urge Tossing Cracked Eggs Over 1.35 Million Annual Salmonella Cases
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 2
Cracked eggs should generally be discarded, food safety experts said, because damaged shells let Salmonella enter and grow inside the egg and raise contamination risk.
CDC guidance backs throwing out cracked or dirty eggs, while experts said risk rises with larger or older cracks and falls when eggs are refrigerated promptly.
Fully cooking a newly cracked egg can sharply reduce Salmonella danger, some experts said, but they still warned about cross-contamination and the rare chance of heat-stable toxins from other bacteria.
Salmonella causes about 1.35 million U.S. infections a year, and children, pregnant women, older adults and immunocompromised people face the highest risk of serious illness.
Even intact eggs can carry Salmonella if hens are infected before shells form, underscoring advice to inspect cartons, refrigerate eggs and follow clean-separate-cook-chill food safety steps.