If I fall over dead, we know who to blame.

[thistlechaser]

On Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays I skip lunch and leave work a little early to swim. That means I don't have lunch until later in the afternoon, so I try to have something solid for breakfast. This morning I went to a sandwich place and ordered an egg sandwich.

I got about halfway through it, thinking about how different it was to have a runny yoke... then I realized why it was different. No one is supposed to serve it that way anymore! Even the CDC says so! Arg!

Man, I hope I don't get sick. I know the chances of it are low, but arg! It's not supposed to be served that way! I threw out the other half, even though I knew it was pointless not to finish it.

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I have been eating eggs with runny yolks my entire life and almost daily for the past year and haven't gotten it.

The chances of getting salmonella are extremely low. The CDC website also reports there are only 42,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. per year, and with 315 million people, that's a 0.0133% chance (or 0.38% chance if you go by their estimated 1.2 million total including non-reported).

If you look at their outbreaks in the last few years (on the side menu of that first link), you're more likely to get salmonella from foods that aren't eggs--mangoes (?!), peanut butter, etc.

So, sure, avoid runny yolks if you want, but the sky isn't falling.

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Koreans eat raw egg all the time. One common appetizer is seasoned ground raw beef, mixed with raw egg. When my mom was busy, she would give us a bowl of rice mixed with butter, soy sauce and a raw egg for lunch. Americans are paranoid.:P

You should be fine, unless the egg was spoiled. And that is pretty unlikely, considering how long eggs stay good. We leave fresh eggs from our chickens on the counter for weeks.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good to know! Most places that serve eggs have signs up telling customers they won't serve runny eggs, which makes it seem like a bigger issue.

Heh, mangoes! Who knew!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

We are paranoid! And me especially!

I doubt it was spoiled, it tasted pretty darned good!

[gmth.livejournal.com]

That's more to protect themselves from lawsuits, not because the risk is all that high.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Thanks!

And I'm happy to report I haven't talked/thought myself into being sick over it. :P

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

I agree with what the previous posters said - the chance of salmonella is, realistically, comparatively very low. The egg itself protects the yolk from bacteria like salmonella with the shell, and inner membranes, so the bacteria would have to overcome several barriers in order to infect the egg. As long as the shell is intact, there's very little chance of that happening. I think this is one of those food scares that's been blown way out of proportion, and you should be fine.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that!

Unfortunately an egg can be infected before the shell is formed (if the mother hen has the salmonella bacteria already in her).

I suspect you're right on the overblown thing!

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it's only one in 20,000 eggs that has traces of salmonella, I'm just reading. Plus, the egg white has built-in resistance to fight off pathogens - it's designed to protect the yolk, after all. So, the chance that you ate a prematurely cracked egg from an infected hen, out of bazillions that are laid every day, and any bacteria reached the inside are less than the chance that you'll be struck by lightining, by my estimation. I think under-cooked chicken meat is much more risky. I once got that into my mouth and swallowed before I realized it...then seriously considered sticking my finger down my throat (as if that would have helped - lol!). But I was fine after swallowing that gross stuff too. :)

[hamsterwoman]

My husband is super-paranoid about undercooked eggs (and meat), so it's reassuring to read all the comments above. Although he comes by his paranoia about food contamination honestly, having had to suffer through Hepatitis A from unwashed salad in a restaurant (as best as anyone can tell).

(I have read that the way the chickens are kept makes a large difference in salmonella incidence rates in eggs, so it may vary from country to country, and also it depends a lot on how the eggs are cooked -- i.e. does your egg get cooked individually, or is it a whole vat of eggs being mixed together in an industrial setting. But, um, I'll stop now with the non-reassuring thoughts. The chances from getting ill from half a sandwich just once should be very, very small!)

In any case, I hope you do not feel any ill effects from this!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm really paranoid as well, though luckily not for as bad of a reason as he has! (Eeeeek, poor him!) I get sick reeeeally easily from food, for no reason I can pin down.

Hmm, that makes sense. If you have one bad egg and you cook it in a vat with a few dozen other ones... hi all your eggs are bad now.

[pure-trance.livejournal.com]

Yeah most places (IHOP for example) just have a warning that it might be dangerous for that reason but they still make it.

[pure-trance.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty paranoid but I've been obsessed with soft boiled eggs lately and I've been fine :)

I also eat raw cookie dough with reckless abandon ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'll eat raw dough if it's in ice cream or something safe like that, but I don't dare otherwise. /paranoid!

I'm really glad I was worried over nothing!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

All this time I thought they weren't permitted to. It really was a yummy sandwich, so that's good to know!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I just shivered at the mention of you mistakenly eating undercooked chicken. I'm so paranoid about handling it! Let alone if any got in my mouth. Blech!

Glad you were fine!

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Chris was cooking that day, I was starving and rushing him. So he popped it into the oven since I was bitching for him to get on with it, and it should have been fried in oil - hot oil. I'm ultra careful with chicken especially, and use bleach on the cutting boards, hot water and soap to soak my knives and all that. I considered inducing vomiting when I realized I'd just swallowed half-raw chicken, but I hate vomiting and figured if bacteria were there, an upchucking wouldn't keep them from multiplying faster than bunny-rabbits. But I was fine. :)

You'll be fine too!

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

We Aussies must be a more daredevil lot, never heard of not being able to request a runny yolk.

I'd be more worried about undercooked chicken.

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

I've eaten undercooked pork before because I, um, mistakenly thought it was done...and didn't realized it wasn't completely cooked until I told my mother that it was super soft and she was like...because it's not completely cooked. Anyway, the scary disesase with undercooked pork is trichinosis, but...I'm still fine nearly 10 years later! :P

And as someone with a BSc in microbiology...I think most people are way OTT about bacteria.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

our CDC (Center for Disease Control) says you shouldn't eat the yoke or white runny. But then, we're a paranoid sort of country! Doesn't surprise me that Australia is more daring. :D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Luckily trichinosis is mostly wiped out now, at least in modern countries. It's more wild pigs that carry it.

And I think you're probably right about bacteria!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I suspect vomiting wouldn't have done any good, but that's just a guess.

I seem fine 24 hours later, so I think I will be! YAY!

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

When you're up to talking about food again, I've got more graze box reviews for you.

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I doubt I could have puked out anything as tiny as bacteria. Ugh, gross topic! LOL

24 hours? I'd wager you're fine. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh yay! I think my next one should be arriving soon. I have to go check my mail this afternoon!

I swear, if it weren't for Graze I'd go weeks between picking up my mail. :P

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

bonnie wee oatbakes
red onion marmalade with cheese and chive oatbakes
savory and sweet, crunchy and tasty; somewhat messy
Verdict: Love

summer berry flapjack
rustic rolled oat flapjack with berry-infused cranberries
super-tasty, fun texture; a bit messy
Verdict: Love

jalapeno fiesta
jalapeno peanuts, roasted sunflower seeds, salsa almonds and roasted pumpkin seeds
almonds are super-tasty, good combination; seeds are kind of boring by themselves
Verdict: Like

garden of england
mini strawberries, blackcurrants and apple
dried strawberries are surprisingly good; textures kind of odd
Verdict: Like

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I want to try bonnie wee oatbakes based on the name alone! All of them sound good to me, other than the jalapeno one.

I'll post when I get my next one!

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

The jalepeno peanuts were odd in that some were spicy and some really weren't. Not sure if that was deliberate or if they were coated unevenly.

From Box #3:
dark rocky road
pecan nuts, dark chocolate buttons and cranberries
Let's put three of my favorite things in a mix together and see what happens! (Spoiler: It's awesome!)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I would suspect uneven coating, I can't see why they would want each peanut to be different (unless maybe to make different handfuls of the snack taste different?).

Ooooh, that sounds really good, yes!

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

Oh I draw the line at runny whites. Ewwwwwww!!!!

[mark356.livejournal.com]

Five years ago, I had raw chicken breast in a bar in Nagoya: it was seared on the outside, raw pink on the inside, chilled, and served with vinegar to dip it into. I swear it was absolutely delicious. I didn't get sick, and none of my friends who had it too did either.

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't get sick either from the undercooked chicken (though the texture was nasty to me). I think salmonella is one of those over-rated risks, in general.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You're braver than me! :) Glad you enjoyed it though!