The Purdue scientists say color, texture and taste remain similar to an untreated egg. The answer could come in about a year, when the new process is expected to hit the market, ready to churn out mass quantities of pasteurized eggs still in the shell. In November at least 49 people, mostly children, were sickened from E. coli in trendy, unpasteurized fruit juices. One child died in Denver. Once thought a threat only in undercooked meat, the virulent E. coli O157 strain now has surfaced repeatedly in apple cider and even in lettuce.
Many people say unpasteurized juices taste better.
But pasteurization, a heating process, kills E. coli, while simply washing fruit with water doesn't. At least four U.S. outbreaks of E. coli O157 were linked to raw lettuce in the past year. Last October, it sickened 10 people who drank apple cider in Connecticut. One possibility is that apples used for juice had dropped from orchard trees into cow feces. But in all these outbreaks, a worker also could simply have handled food with dirty hands, noted John Aguirre of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, which is studying better safeguards.