The Great Eggnog Debate - Round Two

December 29, 2008

Hidden amid the great holiday controversies – whose family to visit first, whether to make ham or turkey for Christmas dinner, should potato latkes be eaten with sour cream or apple sauce – is the annual debate over the safety of homemade eggnog.

At last, there is an answer – sort of.

We talked about this last year. USDA estimates that approximately one egg in 20,000 contains Salmonella, and recommends that consumers use pasteurized eggs in recipes that call for eggs and have no final cooking step. "But," several people asked us, "doesn't the alcohol in the eggnog kill all the Salmonella?"

This year, National Public Radio asked that question of a researcher at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Fischetti obliged NPR by whipping up a batch of homemade eggnog (with alcohol) and comparing its bacterial counts against the store-bought variety. He found that the eggnog made with raw eggs and 20% rum and bourbon contained far fewer bacteria than the alcohol-free store-bought eggnog.

Next, Dr. Fischetti upped the ante by adding Salmonella to the homemade eggnog, holding the concoction – presumably in the refrigerator – for 24 hours, and then checking for survivors. He found that at least some of the Salmonella survived. 

In commenting on this result, Dr. Fischetti pointed out that his lab spiked the eggnog with roughly 1,000 times as many Salmonella as was likely to be found in a contaminated egg. He added that more experiments would be needed to obtain a definitive answer.

As so often happens with a "quick-and-dirty" lab experiment, more questions were generated by this report than answers. For example,

• How much alcohol was in the eggnog?  Rum and bourbon vary in their alcohol content, and the disinfecting action of alcohol is concentration-dependent.
  
• How much of the Salmonella was killed? 10%? 50%? 90%?
  
• How was the Salmonella measured in the eggnog? – Lab methods vary greatly in their sensitivity.
  

Until someone decides to fund a more elaborate set of lab experiments, the safest bet still is to use pasteurized eggs in your homemade eggnog, and give Salmonella a holiday.

Dear Martha,

You are recognized everywhere for your many talents - in home decor, landscaping, color sense and cuisine - and for your exquisite taste. Even my husband’s persnickety Westport, CT aunt thinks that you’re wonderful. But after browsing through the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of “Everyday Food” magazine, it’s very obvious to me that a course in safe food preparation is missing from your resume.

First, let’s talk turkey. Unless you have spent the last few decades living in an isolation booth, you must know that by USDA’s own admission, 20-25% of raw ground turkey meat is contaminated with Salmonella. Yet your recipe directions do not provide for a reliable “kill” step. For example, your “Whole-wheat spaghetti and turkey meatballs” recipe directs the reader to prepare the meatballs as follows:

“In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high. Cook 20 frozen Light Turkey Meatballs until browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups store-bought marinara sauce and 1/2 cup water: Cook until heated through, 5 minutes.”

These instructions leave too much to the reader’s imagination. Browning alone is not enough to cook the meatballs completely, and “heated through” can mean different things to different people. Starting with hard-frozen meatballs increases the risk that the center of the meatballs won’t reach 165ºF, which is the “safe” temperature recommended by USDA.

I also take strong exception to your instructions for cooking chicken in the microwave. Microwave cooking is a notoriously unreliable way to kill bacteria, especially in a solid piece of meat such as a chicken breast. Customers who purchased ConAgra’s Banquet pot pies found that out the hard way. Cooking the chicken breasts until the meat is “...just opaque throughout...” is not a guarantee of microbiological safety.

A few weeks ago, when I was browsing eggnog recipes on-line, I came across yours. It sounded very tasty, but also very risky. It was completely inappropriate for you to publish a recipe that called for raw eggs without adding at least a precautionary statement about the possibility that the eggs might contain Salmonella Enteritidis. You could easily have recommended that pasteurized eggs be used in the recipe.

According to (now 10 year old) data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 76 million cases of food-borne disease in the US every year. That is more than one case of food-borne illness for every four people in this country every year. It is time that you, and others like you, shouldered some responsibility for teaching the public how to cook meals that are not only tasty and nutritious, but also are microbiologically safe.

Sincerely,

Phyllis Entis, MSc., SM(NRM)

Safe Holiday Eating

Meatingplace.com, an on-line meat industry publication, sponsored a survey on consumer food safety knowledge and practices this fall. They found that food safety information is reaching many consumers, but not everyone puts their knowledge to good use.

The magazine reports that more than 60% of consumers say that they thaw their frozen food in the refrigerator, and the majority of consumers know that poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165ºF. But 63% of those surveyed admitted that they rarely, if ever, used a meat thermometer, and one third claimed to be able to tell that meat was "done" simply by looking at it.

Government agencies and food safety educators spend a great deal of time and effort trying to "get the message out". While they appear to be having some degree of success, the next question is how to get consumers to implement that information.

For starters, here are a few reminders for a food-safe holiday season.

1. Use a meat thermometer when roasting your holiday turkey. You can find details at the USDA web site, and in my blogs of November 23rd and December 12.

2. Use pasteurized eggs to prepare your eggnog, or choose a recipe that includes a cooking step to prevent the possiblity of Salmonella in your eggnog. Remember, there isn't enough alcohol in the eggnog to kill Salmonella.

3. Always clean up very thoroughly after handling or preparing raw meat, eggs or poultry. Remember that Salmonella, Campylobacter and other microbes can be transferred from sponges, dishrags, countertops, sink faucets and the handles of knives and utensils - not just cutting boards.

4. Thaw frozen food in the refrigerator, not at room temperature.

5. Cool cooked food quickly - in the refrigerator, not on the countertop. Your refrigerator can handle the load. Do not try to cool the food in large, deep batches. Spread it out in a shallow layer in several containers, if necessary, to cool it rapidly. Then, once the food has cooled, you can consolidate it into a single container.

If you have any tips of your own to add, or questions about safe handling, please post a comment.

Have a happy and safe holiday!

'Tis The Season To Drink Eggnog

With the holiday party season fast approaching, my husband suggested that it was time for me to talk about eggnog - especially the home-made variety.

Out of curiosity, I "Googled" eggnog. This produced 162,000 hits. Limiting the search to "eggnog recipes" cut the list to 94,900. One of the first sites I looked at from this list was Martha Stewart's. To my dismay, her eggnog recipe uses raw eggs and makes absolutely no mention of the risk of Salmonella contamination. Given Martha Stewart's high profile, I wish she would have included a cautionary message or - even better - offered a recipe for eggnog that included a cooking step.

Sadly, Martha wasn't alone. The National Public Radio website's eggnog recipe was equally remiss, as were 80% of the sites that offered a recipe for home-made eggnog. Only 20% (19,100) of the sites offering eggnog recipes (I searched for "eggnog recipe cooked") provided a recipe for eggnog that included a cooking step. The American Egg Board was one site that offered a tasty-sounding recipe, but there were also many others to choose from.

According to USDA estimates, approximately 1 egg in 20,000 contains Salmonella enteritidis, a strain of Salmonella that has created a niche for itself in laying hens. Infected eggs appear completely normal; the shells have no apparent cracks or defects, and the yolk and white look completely normal. There is no reliable way to detect a contaminated egg. The proportion of eggs containing Salmonella varies from country to country, but the problem is widespread. For safety's sake, handle raw shell eggs in the kitchen just as carefully as raw poultry or other raw meats. And use pasteurized shell eggs in recipes such as Caesar salad, hollandaise dressings, and other dishes that do not include a cooking step.

So, enjoy your home-made eggnog this holiday season, but please make sure that Salmonella isn't one of the ingredients in the recipe.