how does raw egg give you salmonella, but you can eat a whole raw egg and be fine

Question

how does raw egg give you salmonella, but you can eat a whole raw egg and be fine

In: 4

Answer 1

* Not EVERY egg is contaminated with Salmonella bacteria.
* And even the ones that are may not have a sufficient quantity of them to make you sick. The reason USDA/FDA have a “danger zone” recommendation for food safety (uncured foods that can potentially harbor bacteria should be kept above 140F or below 40F) is that food poisoning becomes increasingly hazardous the more actual bacteria there are… outside that danger zone, temperature generally inhibits reproduction (which is why you refrigerate leftovers) and the longer a food that contains raw egg, for example, stays between 40-140F, the more chance any potentially harmful bacteria have to multiply. One or two salmonella bacteria aren’t going to hurt you. One or two million might.
* Or the *strain* contained in the egg may not be a kind that would make you noticeably sick. Bacteria can be (roughly) like dogs, in that there are different breeds or *strains* with slightly different traits, even within the same species. This is particularly important for the kinds of bacteria that can cause foodborne illness, like Salmonella and E. coli.

Also, eggs are mostly sealed from outside contamination, so the only salmonella they likely contain is the salmonella they already had when laid. Eggs are most likely to be contaminated with dangerous bacteria during the cracking process, when material on the outside of the shell can finally penetrate to the interior (your cracking technique can also minimize this).

In the U.S. eggs are washed to remove dirt and debris before they are packaged and sold – **this actually removes a protective layer** from the outside of the egg, which is why eggs produced in the U.S. have to be refrigerated, while outside the U.S. this is not necessarily the case.

tl;dr – if the egg has been properly stored (refrigerated if washed, or else unwashed until ready to use), and you eat it right after cracking it open, your odds of getting the ol’ salmonella card punched are pretty low. Not zero, but low.