Accompanying me today is Caroline Smith DeWaal, our Director of Food Safety.
Most consumers think that the government is ensuring that their food is safe.
But the government watchdogs were asleep while eggs contaminated with Salmonella grew into a national public-health epidemic. The advent of that enterprising strain of bacterium means that it is no longer safe to eat runny eggs, taste cookie dough, or enjoy raw eggs in desserts and salads. Today, infected chickens lay an estimated 2.3 million contaminated eggs each year, any one of which could cause an illness or an outbreak of food poisoning. CDC has reported that since 1985, there have been nearly 800 SE-outbreaks, largely associated with eggs and egg dishes. While preliminary CDC data from a few areas around the country suggest that the number of illnesses linked to SE has declined, many more illnesses could be prevented with better government oversight of the egg industry.