The FDA is weighing in on the end of Almark Foods eggs Listeria monocytogenes outbreak that has sickened eight people in 5 states, hospitalized five, and killed one person in Texas. This high hospitalization rate is fairly typical for a Listeria monocytogenes outbreak. Almark Foods recalled hard boiled and peeled eggs in pails on December 20, 2019 and then expanded that recall on December 23, 2019 to include all hard boiled eggs produced at the company's Gainesville, Georgia facility. At this time, the firm is no longer producing any products at that facility. The company also sold hard boiled eggs at the retail level. In fact, there were several secondary recalls of salads and other products after the initial recall. The recalled products are now past their "Best by" date, the … [Read more...]
Researchers at Flinders University Use Sous Vide To Remove Salmonella From Eggshells
Researchers at Flinders University in Australia have found a way to use sous vide to remove Salmonella from the surface of eggshells. The study was published in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. Sous vide is a cooking method where food is vacuum sealed inside plastic bags and immersed in a water bath for longer periods of time than other methods. The water temperature is set to the desired final internal temperature of the food. Eggs can be contaminated with Salmonella bacteria, and in fact, several outbreaks in recent years have been linked to shell eggs. Because of this potential contamination, food safety experts advise consumers to cook eggs thoroughly to 160°F, avoid recipes that use uncooked and undercooked eggs, and to wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water after … [Read more...]
Do You Make Spaghetti Carbonara? You Need to Read This
If you make Spaghetti Carbonara, as I do, which is that traditional dish where raw eggs are beaten, then stirred into hot cooked spaghetti (to "cook" the eggs), you need to read this study published in LWT, a journal of Food Science and Technology. This method of cooking does not kill all bacteria that may be present in the eggs. The only thermal processing, or kill step, is heat transfer from the hot pasta, which isn't sufficient to destroy all of the pathogens. Scientists inoculated egg yolks with a pool of Salmonella reaching 8.8 log10 CFU/g. The contaminated egg yolks were added to the cooked spaghetti, after the pot was taken off the heat. Right after the pasta was cooked and drained, it was 86°C (186°F), which is quite hot and well above the 165°F the eggs need to reach to … [Read more...]