UDAF
Promotes Egg Safety
At Health Care Facilities
The Utah Department
of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) wants managers of child and elderly care
facilities to be aware of special handling and cooking needs when preparing
meals that include eggs. Added safeguards are needed when cooking eggs
for these highly susceptible populations.
The UDAF is distributing a special brochure and poster to hundreds of
health care facilities throughout Utah. The message is, take added care
when cooking eggs.
"We want to make sure that these health care centers are aware
that eggs require special handling, especially when it comes to the
very young and the elderly," said Doug Pearson, Supervisor of UDAF's
Meat and Poultry Compliance program.
Fresh eggs may contain bacteria called Salmonella Enteritidis (SE),
that can cause intestinal infections. Most healthy people recover from
these infections within 4-7 days, but the illness could be fatal for
the elderly, the very young, and those with weakened immune systems.
It is estimated that one out of 20,000 eggs may be carrying the SE bacteria.
The Egg Safety brochure lists numerous tips on how health care facilities
should handle, store and cook eggs. It advises:
* In NO case should
soft-cooked eggs, souffles or meringues or other foods that contain
raw or undercooked eggs be served to highly susceptible populations.
* Cook raw eggs to a temperature of at least 145 degrees for 15 seconds.
* Store cooked foods containing eggs at 41 degrees or colder.
* Wash, rinse, and sanitize utensils, equipment and work surfaces after
preparing eggs or foods containing eggs.
* Substitute treated or pasteurized egg products for raw shell eggs
in preparing such foods as Ceasar salad, hollandaise or bearnaise sauce,
mayonnaise, eggnog, ice cream, and egg-fortified beverages that are
not thoroughly cooked.
The Utah Department
of Agriculture and Food recently instituted the Utah Egg Quality Assurance
Program that is a collaborative effort between private industry and
government to provide the safest egg products possible to Utah consumers.
Efforts by program are paying off. According to the Utah Department
of Health, the number of reported cases of Salmonella enteritidis (SE)
in Utah has declined by 86 per cent from 2000 to 2001. In 2000 there
were 299 confirmed cases of SE, there were just 41 confirmed cases in
year 2001.
Read more about
this topic at: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fs-eggs2.html
