Headline writers across the U.S. have been increasing their egg-related pun usage as coverage continues. According to headlines, many seem to be scrambling (yes, most had the same joke).

Here are some of the select words over the past 24 hours.

Foodservice reactions (from AP):
"If someone asks for eggs over-easy, what do you do, put a skull and crossbones on their table?" said Louis Tricoli, who owns three Wisconsin restaurants with his family, including one where nearly two dozen people were sickened in late June after likely eating the now-recalled eggs. "Undercooked beef, undercooked pork, chicken, eggs, anything you ask to be undercooked, it’s at your own risk."

At Atlanta’s West Egg Cafe, business was brisk last weekend when customers chowed through nearly 2,900 eggs over the course of three days. Still, some diners made sure to ask whether the eggs were safe, said Chef Patric Bell. The restaurant’s eggs weren’t affected by the recall and he said so far no one was changing their breakfast orders. "If I couldn’t get eggs that were safe, I wouldn’t serve them at all," he said.

Safe is like a guarantee of risk-free, and raw/undercooked eggs are not — data shows that Salmonella Enteriditis is in or on 1 in 20,000 eggs in the U.S.. There is always a risk.

The harmful bacteria typically contaminate one out of every 10,000 to 20,000 eggs. That risk is always there for people who like eggs that aren’t cooked until the yolks are solid, said Benjamin Chapman, an assistant professor specializing in food safety at North Carolina State University. "It’s difficult to say if the risk is any different than it was two weeks ago or two years ago."

Food safety decisions are based on risk/benefit trade offs; and safety means a lot of things to folks (from AP):

The recall isn’t enough to scare off Charles Mettler, who ordered an eggs Benedict on Tuesday when he stopped by Drake Diner’s in Des Moines, Iowa. "I’m probably more worried about the Hollandaise sauce as far as cholesterol." Mettler said.

Risks aren’t just from undercooking or temperature abuse– cross-contamination is also a potential route to contaminate non-egg containing dishes (from the syndicated HealthDay):

During food preparation, take precautions by thoroughly washing your hands, countertops and utensils after handling raw eggs. "When you crack an egg, a little egg juice will usually get on your hands or countertop. You want to make sure you’ve washed that before you accidentally lay your toast on it," Chapman said.

An example of a restaurant operator evaluating risk/benefit of using eggs that were included in the recall, even with control measures such as cooking (from AP):

When Peggy Bevan, owner of the Egg Shell of Cherry Creek breakfast cafe in Denver , learned that the egg recall had expanded to Colorado, it was time to clear the decks. "We dumped everything we had prepped, from pancakes to French toast batters," she said. "We didn’t take a chance."

 

An egg-linked outbreak of Salmonella Enteriditis in the U.S. is blowing up. An estimated 228 million eggs recalled, 260+ illnesses in California, another 7 confirmed illnesses in Minnesota and Pulsenet lighting up with four times the expected number of cases with this particular genetic fingerprint. Click here to download the newest food safety infosheet directed at food service food handlers that focuses on the outbreak and recall.

Before I moved to North Carolina I didn’t know a whole lot of the specifics around home food preservation. I had never pickled, canned, or done anything preserve-y. My parents use to have a pickling party around Labour Day every year (the ‘u’ is in there because I lived in Canada then) but I never really got into it. In the past two years I’ve become a lot more involved with preservation stuff as the close to 100 extension agents across the state to whom I provide technical food safety support spend a pretty good chunk of their time teaching and answering questions about pickling, pressure canning and the likes.

I jumped into pickling last year and pressure canning this year so beyond the science aspect I have an idea of the practices – what’s tough and what might go wrong. Preservation is a bit like baking where recipes, ratios and processing times are important to create a final product that’s not going to paralyze or kill someone. Follow the rules and everything should be okay.

AP reports that something went wrong in the Chicago area and now a few folks are suffering from salmonellosis:

Salmonella isn’t typically associated with fermented or acidified cucumbers (the heat processing of the product should kill it and the  pH is too low for growth of other pathogens). AP reports that the illnesses have been linked to pickles that were sold to customers in plastic bags. This outbreak looks like the result of a post-pickling issue; possibly dirty hands or equipment used to transfer the pickles to bags.

 The Toronto Star reports today that the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care is investigating a spike in Salmonella Oranienberg-linked illnesses in and around Toronto. Twenty-five cases of Salmonella have been reported to health authorities since late July, up from the expected three in the same time frame. The Star suggests that these cases may be linked to a CFIA investigation of green onions. The inspection agency issued a warning about unwrapped green onions that were sold between July 31 and August 1 at a Highland Farms grocery store located at 4750 Dufferin St.

Loose green onions sold in such a small window could suggest either contamination at the store (an ill food handler?) or problems further upstream (transport, distributors, wholesalers or even back to the farm).

But probably not in-home or shopping practices.

Making the below advice from Dr. Arlene King, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, pretty far out of context (although health authorities have been known to call situations like this "a teachable moment"; research disagrees that this tactic works).

“People need to remember to properly handle and prepare food,” said King.

The ministry recommends four basic steps to prevent foodborne illness — clean, separate, cook and chill.

The steps include thoroughly washing hands, surfaces and equipment, keeping raw and ready-to-eat foods separated, cooking at high temperatures, and properly refrigerating and defrosting food.

Yeah, I’m sure refrigeration and defrosting was really a key factor with the green onions. How about giving folks some advice on how to ask questions about the conditions their produce was grown and talking about what regulators and the industry is doing to make sure this type of stuff doesn’t happen.

Pet food/feeding just wont go away. Following last week’s frozen pet food linked outbreak, researchers led by CDC have released a report detailing salmonellosis associated with dry pet kibble from 2006-2008 linked to 79 illnesses in 21 states.

According to AP and USA Today: