Salmonella in eggs

[kallend 2,147]

www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/77209/tainted-eggs-blame-reagan-and-w-bush

Fascinating politics.

"The next time you hear a conservative ranting about big government, ask him how he likes his eggs--plain or with a side of salmonella."

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129431237

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[muff528 3]

Just cook the dam things until they're done! What a waste of a half billion eggs.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

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Just cook the dam things until they're done! What a waste of a half billion eggs.

Yep. They've had salmonella warnings on eggs for quite a few years now. Same thing for yardbird (chicken). You don't cross-contaminate any dishes or utensils, and wash your hands properly after handling any raw meat or eggs.

When some actually shows up, everyone goes completely bananas.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[kelpdiver 2]

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Just cook the dam things until they're done! What a waste of a half billion eggs.

overcooked eggs aren't very tasty. I'd rather the eggs not be contaminated in the first place.

[billvon 3,114]

I don't think this is a conservative vs liberal thing. Both sides support factory farming, which is where the basic problem comes from.

[kallend 2,147]

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Just cook the dam things until they're done! What a waste of a half billion eggs.

overcooked eggs aren't very tasty. I'd rather the eggs not be contaminated in the first place.

+1

It is not appropriate to fob off onto the customer the responsibility for dealing with tainted food sold by big agriculture.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kallend 2,147]

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I don't think this is a conservative vs liberal thing. Both sides support factory farming, which is where the basic problem comes from.

Less government regulation is most definitely a conservative thing, which is why nothing happened during the Bush years.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Southern_Man 0]

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overcooked eggs aren't very tasty. I'd rather the eggs not be contaminated in the first place.

There's a difference between cooked and overcooked.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[kelpdiver 2]

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overcooked eggs aren't very tasty. I'd rather the eggs not be contaminated in the first place.

There's a difference between cooked and overcooked.

and sunny side up, or over easy are neither. If you like your eggs runny, you don't want salmonella in your eggs.

there's no justification for the contamination to be there in the first place. It is a consequence of the farming method that puts all emphasis on volume of production with no regard for sanitary issues.

[kallend 2,147]

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overcooked eggs aren't very tasty. I'd rather the eggs not be contaminated in the first place.

There's a difference between cooked and overcooked.

and sunny side up, or over easy are neither. If you like your eggs runny, you don't want salmonella in your eggs.

there's no justification for the contamination to be there in the first place. It is a consequence of the farming method that puts all emphasis on volume of production with no regard for sanitary issues.

Correct. Salmonella in eggs is almost unknown these days in several European countries due to better farming methods and more rigorous inspections - steadfastly opposed by Big Ag in the USA.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[DARK 0]

am i wrong in thinking that the salmonella isnt actually IN the eggs at all but on the outside of the shells and even if your egg is contaminated if you take a few basic precautions you are still at no risk? or is it actually inside the egg?

[muff528 3]

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I don't think this is a conservative vs liberal thing. Both sides support factory farming, which is where the basic problem comes from.

300,000,000 people (+ a significant number of people in other countries) is a lot of people to feed every day. Until we come up with soylent green or elf crackers we need large scale farming. Our food supply is really incredibly safe considering the sheer volume of food produced, distributed and consumed daily. It probably could be safer but the fact that we just identified and recalled or halted the distribution of 500,000,000+ eggs (most of which might have been perfectly safe) in a matter of a couple of days is a feat in itself. And even if a few got through there was a warning to "properly" cook the eggs before eating them. They did not say "Remove the eggs to your trash bin immediately before your next meal". I wonder how many folks went to bed last night wishing they had a couple of "over-cooked" eggs to eat.

[kallend 2,147]

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I don't think this is a conservative vs liberal thing. Both sides support factory farming, which is where the basic problem comes from.

300,000,000 people (+ a significant number of people in other countries) is a lot of people to feed every day.

If the UK can effectively eliminate the problem of salmonella in eggs, so can the USA. All it needs is the will to do it.

"In 1997, there were 14,771 reported cases in England and Wales of the most common type of the bacteria, a strain known as Salmonella Enteritidis PT4. Vaccine trials began that year, and the next year, egg producers began vaccinating in large numbers.

The number of human illnesses has dropped almost every year since then. Last year, according to data from the Health Protection Agency of England and Wales, there were just 581 cases, a drop of 96 percent from 1997.

“We have pretty much eliminated salmonella as a human problem in the U.K.,” said Amanda Cryer, director of the British Egg Information Service, an industry group.

"The F.D.A. estimates that each year, 142,000 illnesses in the United States are caused by consuming eggs contaminated with the most common type of salmonella. It has said the new rules would cut that by more than half. People who eat bad eggs that have not been cooked thoroughly to kill the bacteria can get diarrhea and cramps. Rare cases can be fatal."

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 3,114]

>Until we come up with soylent green or elf crackers we need large
>scale farming.

"Large scale" is not the same as "factory."

> I wonder how many folks went to bed last night wishing they had a
>couple of "over-cooked" eggs to eat.

Given that obesity is now one of the top killers in the US - probably a lot, although "need" is certainly not the same as "wished they had." Indeed, having a few less eggs might just prolong someone's life a bit.

[muff528 3]

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I don't think this is a conservative vs liberal thing. Both sides support factory farming, which is where the basic problem comes from.

300,000,000 people (+ a significant number of people in other countries) is a lot of people to feed every day.

If the UK can effectively eliminate the problem of salmonella in eggs, so can the USA. All it needs is the will to do it.

OK.. so how did they "effectively" eliminate salmonella in eggs? I'd be more interested in learning the source of the infection and addressing that. I'm sure we'll get some idea soon and then take steps to minimize that risk. The food barons don't really want to poison their customers. ....unless they are in cahoots with big medicine.

[muff528 3]

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>Until we come up with soylent green or elf crackers we need large
>scale farming.

"Large scale" is not the same as "factory."

> I wonder how many folks went to bed last night wishing they had a
>couple of "over-cooked" eggs to eat.

Given that obesity is now one of the top killers in the US - probably a lot, although "need" is certainly not the same as "wished they had." Indeed, having a few less eggs might just prolong someone's life a bit.

OK, so I meant "factory". No matter how mechanized the process gets you still need a chicken to squat and lay an egg.

Also, I was not talking about someone scarfing down a couple of "extra" eggs before bed. I was referring to people who might not have had anything else.

[BIGUN 1,483]

This is not a conservative versus liberal issue. The CDC has been collecting egg salmonella reports for quite some time. This is about one bad factory with more than one infraction whose been around since the Clinton era and has not been sufficiently spanked to get off their ass and fix it.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[kelpdiver 2]

the change to egg farming was about producing eggs cheaper, not producing more eggs.

Cattle does pose a greater problem with scale, though perhaps we'd be better off as a country with less cheap beef available.

[muff528 3]

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I don't think this is a conservative vs liberal thing. Both sides support factory farming, which is where the basic problem comes from.

300,000,000 people (+ a significant number of people in other countries) is a lot of people to feed every day.

If the UK can effectively eliminate the problem of salmonella in eggs, so can the USA. All it needs is the will to do it.

"In 1997, there were 14,771 reported cases in England and Wales of the most common type of the bacteria, a strain known as Salmonella Enteritidis PT4. Vaccine trials began that year, and the next year, egg producers began vaccinating in large numbers.

The number of human illnesses has dropped almost every year since then. Last year, according to data from the Health Protection Agency of England and Wales, there were just 581 cases, a drop of 96 percent from 1997.

“We have pretty much eliminated salmonella as a human problem in the U.K.,” said Amanda Cryer, director of the British Egg Information Service, an industry group.

"The F.D.A. estimates that each year, 142,000 illnesses in the United States are caused by consuming eggs contaminated with the most common type of salmonella. It has said the new rules would cut that by more than half. People who eat bad eggs that have not been cooked thoroughly to kill the bacteria can get diarrhea and cramps. Rare cases can be fatal."

If I'm reading that correctly, it seems that if UK procedures are used then the number of US egg salmonella illnesses will drop to ~70,000 annually. Based on population shouldn't that number be more like ~3000 annually? (This particular outbreak is responsible for ~1400 illnesses before the recall.)

[muff528 3]

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the change to egg farming was about producing eggs cheaper, not producing more eggs.

Cattle does pose a greater problem with scale, though perhaps we'd be better off as a country with less cheap beef available.

We're still talking about 500M eggs, cheap or not. Maybe producing them cheaper has something to do with the outbreak. Eggs are already cheap and will still be cheap at twice the price considering their food value.

[CarrieByTheSea 0]

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I don't think this is a conservative vs liberal thing. Both sides support factory farming, which is where the basic problem comes from.

+1

"Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be." ~ Temple Grandin

[kelpdiver 2]

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We're still talking about 500M eggs, cheap or not. Maybe producing them cheaper has something to do with the outbreak. Eggs are already cheap and will still be cheap at twice the price considering their food value.

There's no maybe about it. The chickens are sitting in their shit, that's how salmonella gets spread about. The producers aren't thinking about poisoning their customers, but they are thinking "a little bit of shit won't hurt anyone; they just need to cook it fully." Same with the cattle slaughter houses.

I'm fortunate to be in San Francisco, where you can name your price for any sort of super ultra organic method for how your meat is produced. But when you watch the documentaries on how 95% of meat is produced, you wonder what most can do about it. As bad as Walmart has been for quality of goods, you generally do have alternative options. But the food industry is so concentrated in a few hands that nothing besides government regulation seems likely to make a difference.

[CarrieByTheSea 0]

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The chickens are sitting in their shit, that's how salmonella gets spread about. The producers aren't thinking about poisoning their customers, but they are thinking "a little bit of shit won't hurt anyone; they just need to cook it fully."

And, ironically, the people who pay more for a heavier, "juicier" factory-chicken are paying for the extra shit-water it absorbed in the process.

"Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be." ~ Temple Grandin

[muff528 3]

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We're still talking about 500M eggs, cheap or not. Maybe producing them cheaper has something to do with the outbreak. Eggs are already cheap and will still be cheap at twice the price considering their food value.

There's no maybe about it. The chickens are sitting in their shit, that's how salmonella gets spread about. The producers aren't thinking about poisoning their customers, but they are thinking "a little bit of shit won't hurt anyone; they just need to cook it fully." Same with the cattle slaughter houses.

I'm fortunate to be in San Francisco, where you can name your price for any sort of super ultra organic method for how your meat is produced. But when you watch the documentaries on how 95% of meat is produced, you wonder what most can do about it. As bad as Walmart has been for quality of goods, you generally do have alternative options. But the food industry is so concentrated in a few hands that nothing besides government regulation seems likely to make a difference.

I really am not arguing against more govt control or regulation with respect to food quality (or humane treatment of the animals for that matter) and the plant responsible for this outbreak should be held meaningfully accountable. I am merely commenting on the unfathomable quantity of wasted food when this really doesn't have to be a total loss.

[CarrieByTheSea 0]

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I am merely commenting on the unfathomable quantity of wasted food when this really doesn't have to be a total loss.

Agreed.

Though, surely you understand it is natural for one to want nothing to even be considered for loss in the first place.

This is not a "chicken or the egg" scenario, but a solvable equation that can either be prevented or dealt with as a result. I would rather prevent it in the future.

"Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be." ~ Temple Grandin