While sitting down to my eggful breakfast this morning, my ears perked up when I heard something about the wonderful food on the radio. They were talking about making sure your yolks are cooked COMPLETELY through and even about pasteurizing eggs. Pffft. I took a bit of my ooey gooey fried egg on toast (ciabatta from Texas French Bread!). But then the story went on and I realized this wasn't just a 'food safety expert' scaring everyone. There's an egg recall!!! (yes, I do typically live under a rock...remember I have a 4 month old!)
While some experts say that small-producer, free range eggs aren't any safer from salmonella contamination, I have to wonder. Perhaps statistically, the eggs from a small farmer are just as likely to be contaminated, but the fact is, there simply can't be a HUGE outbreak because of their size. Our centralized food system is what causes these devastating outbreaks that has people all over the country (or at least in 16 states this time), dumping food for fear it's going to make them sick!
The two farms that are indicated in the outbreak aren't selling their recently laid eggs in the carton. Instead, they are being shipped to a "breaking plant" where the eggs will be pasteurized and sold as liquid eggs. That's great that not all that food will go to waste, but it seems more like a band-aid than a true fix to the problem. How do we stop massive outbreaks in the first place?
