Despite the hard times egg producers are facing, eggs continue to be an inexpensive and important source of protein. According to UEP, the average American eats 250 eggs a year. A survey from the market research group Technical Assessment Systems finds that 90 percent of the population eat eggs in some form each day. Nearly 5 percent of Americans surveyed said they either ate raw eggs daily or could not specify whether the egg consumed was raw or cooked. Raw and lightly cooked contaminated eggs are causing the illnesses.
Thorough cooking kills the bacteria.
According to Madden, a person can become ill after eating only a small amount of a contaminated egg. For instance, he says, one New York incident involved a family who cooked three eggs sunny side up. The yolk of one egg broke onto the other eggs during cooking, and all three family members became ill. Madden explains that the one broken egg was probably responsible for all three illnesses, as it is extremely unlikely that more than one egg per container would be contaminated. In fact, only 1 in 200 eggs from an infected flock may be contaminated.