The server asks, "Do you want your eggs pasteurized or unpasteurized?" The server goes on to mention if you want your eggs sunny side up then she is only allowed to use pasteurized eggs for that order.
You are slightly surprised. Why in the world would I want an egg pasteurized? You respond to the server, "Yes I want my sunny side up eggs pasteurized. I thought only milk was pasteurized. How about homogenizing that egg for me while you are at it."
"All right," the server responds, "but then you will have a Salmonella-free scrambled egg!"
Just a little preview of conversations that could occur if an egg in the shell pasteurizer becomes commonplace. An article in The Scientist titled "Researchers Take Strides Against Salmonella" describes a machine that will pasteurize eggs still in the shell. This machine has gained the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) seal of approval. The machine called "Big Pete" carefully weighs each egg. The eggs are then heated (pasteurized) at temperatures ranging from 62 C (145 F) to 72 C (161 F) for a certain amount of time depending on how much the egg weighs. The heating of the egg is what pasteurizes it. This machine produced by a company called Pasteurized Eggs L.P. (Laconia, New Hampshire, United States) is able to pasteurize a thousand eggs per minute and in one years time could pasteurize 15 million eggs per year.
This is the first large-scale process that has made it possible to pasteurize an egg while it is still in the shell. Presently the only way to get a pasteurized egg is in a carton. Eggs have become the major source of food poisoning in the United States. This food poisoning results from a bacteria called Salmonella enteritidis. People with this type of food poisoning have cramps and diarrhea. Elderly people, if infected, can develop a very serious case of this disease and some have died. It is believed that 1 in 20,000 eggs in the United States are contaminated with this bacteria.
As a result of this infection, recipes that call for uncooked eggs (homemade ice cream recipes) or the cooking of sunny-side up eggs is strongly discouraged. Pasteurizing eggs while still in the shell may make using these recipes a little safer.
The process of pasteurization has been used on milk and on egg products already removed from the shell. Basically, by heating the milk or egg, the bacteria that cause disease are killed. The tricky part is to not cook the milk or egg and destroy the product. Milk is pasteurized by heating
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