I wanted to try a japanese dish called tamago kake gohan, it’s basically raw eggs mixed with rice. The problem is that I’m scared to get salmonella from it. Do you guys think it’s safe to eat them? I’m currently living in Brazil. Also, I saw this article telling that the brand I buy my eggs from is exporting to Japan, would this mean they’re salmonella-free?
Depends entirely on how old the eggs are and how they’ve been treated. Fresh eggs laid today are very safe, they have a shell for a reason. Salmonella don’t just magically appear in eggs or chicken would have a hard time procreating. Refrigerated eggs are also probably safe to consume for quite a while although you can’t always be sure whether they were continuously refrigerated. Washed eggs however should be considered unsafe because washing them destroys the protective seal the shells provide. So you’ll need to find out what has happened to those eggs between the chicken laying them and you buying them.
so if I could work out the logistics of farming chickens, I can crack cleaned eggs into my mouth?
For sure. I have a micro homestead with a lot of chickens (dozens upon dozens lol) - we raise them for eggs, meat, and the manure (which we use to make awesome soil for the garden). We keep the coop extremely clean (like multiple times a month we clean it out), and we keep our chickens healthy (constantly treating for parasites, mites, worms, etc) so they live a happy healthy life.
Those eggs come out clean in the nests because we keep them clean as well. I personally would probably rinse it off right before cracking open just because it’s me, but yeah there’s no salmonella in our coop because we maintain sanitary conditions (probably way more than the average backyard chicken owner).
Its rare to cause any problem. You can eat it without fear.
Eggs can be pasteurized- aka heated to kill off bacteria such as salmonella - without cooking them. From a quick Google, in the US and Japan it should be standard to make this dish with such eggs as to be safe to eat. I can’t speak to Brazil’s food safety standards though- the chances of using pasteurized eggs could be a lot lower, however if it’s a Japanese export/import, Japan takes such safety very seriously, so it’s likely to be safe.
If you buy eggs preshelled in the US then they are required to be pasteurized - something like this would be good https://vitalfarms.com/pasture-raised-liquid-whole-eggs/
In theory you can pasteurize an egg in its shell, but they aren’t very common round here.
Last time I researched this, I came to the following conclusions:
- Salmonella lives on/in the hard shell part of an egg (not penetrating it) so unless you consume the shell, you should be fine
- If an egg has a lion stamp on it (UK only I think) it means that the farm it came from is certified not to have salmonella
- I ate raw eggs (including shell) on many occasion (not really a party trick but I like to shock people every now and then :D) and never have I ever encountered any unpleasantries because of this (apart from them tasking like runny boogers).
Number 1 is wrong. Salmonellae primarily live on the shell, but they possibly propagate to everything that touches the shell, including obviously the inner part of the egg.
Number 2 is good to know: The lion stamp eggs are from chicken that have been vaccinated against the most common salmonella infections. There is no 100% guarantee that it is effective, but together with hygienic measures and regular controls, they can be seen as virtually salmonella-free. Worth noting that vaccination is a requirement in many countries (e.g. Germany), and EU-wide for big farms.
As long as the eggs are store-bought you should be fine (do not use caipira chicken eggs). Otherwise Paraná would be a desert, given how often we prepare mayo with raw yolks here.
