Raw eggs

[Melody]

I've been watching some Great British Bake-Off Christmas masterclass episodes, and I noticed quite often they use raw eggs - either whites, yolks, or whole eggs - in some of the bakes (obviously I mean that the eggs aren't cooked after being added to the mix, not that they're added raw and then cooked). That really wouldn't be safe over here, so I was wondering if there are irradiated or otherwise safe eggs in the UK these days. I gather raw eggs can be safe in Japan, but I don't think it's safe to even use egg whites over here. I sort of thought it wasn't safe in the UK either, but the number of times I've seen Mary and Paul using them, and apparently surviving the experience, I'm assuming it's OK.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Melody

[alison]

"Lion"-marked eggs in the UK (I don't think you can get anything else?) are produced from hens which have been vaccinated against salmonella (I just looked it up on my box of bog-standard eggs), so should be safe to eat even raw.  However, there is a warning that it may be safer for frail people or people with various health problems to avoid raw eggs (I always use powdered egg white for icing the Christmas cake just in case).  I can't imagine we'd be allowed to irradiate anything over here - not for the next 3 months, at least.

[Melody]

Thanks, that makes sense - I noticed that they were always using those Lion eggs, which we don't have here. I think I'd use powdered egg white too, just to be safe. Over here, at least back when I decorated cakes seriously, the only real option for making royal icing was to use meringue powder, which made the icing taste depressingly artificial.

[Sim]

Melody, where was your Christmas decoration video this year??

[Melody]

I posted it in the Seasons Greetings thread in Doing Dance, I think. Here it is again, though, in case anyone missed it, since I think there were at least two threads in different forums.

 

 

[Lizbie1]

On 04/01/2019 at 01:09, alison said:

 

However, there is a warning that it may be safer for frail people or people with various health problems to avoid raw eggs...

 

 

Sorry, late to this, but the advice is now that they're now considered safe for all: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/11/egg-safety-weve-cracked-it-britons-told-by-food-watchdog.

 

(Unless something has changed in the last year, of course.)

[Colman]

There is the point that mixing in sugar, alcohol and other preservatives tends to reduce the risk too.

 

The one that gives me pause is using eggs in an uncooked mascarpone mix where there really isn’t anything around to kill pathogens. I wouldn’t serve that one to anyone that might be immune compromised. 

[Melody]

The thing is, if they can vaccinate chickens against salmonella, why can't they vaccinate humans? Salmonella infection can be picked up from other animals apart from chickens.

[Anon2]

1 hour ago, Melody said:

The thing is, if they can vaccinate chickens against salmonella, why can't they vaccinate humans? Salmonella infection can be picked up from other animals apart from chickens.

Think the chicken vaccine is only active against two strains and there are numerous types of salmonella. The chicken vaccine requires 2 vaccines 4 weeks apart in the first year then a yearly booster. Humans are notorious in not getting complete courses of vaccines and as we’ve seen a huge drop in recorded cases of salmonella in the UK since chicken vaccination was introduced it will be seen as more effective than trying to roll out a human vaccination program.