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> Whether it’s three weeks old or three years old, aged eggnog is actually safer to drink than fresh eggnog made with raw eggs—as long as you put plenty of booz

> Whether it’s three weeks old or three years old, aged eggnog is actually safer to drink than fresh eggnog made with raw eggs—as long as you put plenty of booze in it. (Not that raw eggs are all that dangerous in the first place. The USDA estimates that one in every 20,000 eggs contains salmonella bacteria, which means that the average consumer would encounter a contaminated egg once every 84 years.) That seems hard to square with the information that "Eggs and egg-containing foods are the primary vehicles of S. Enteritidis infection, having been implicated in 298 (80%) of the 371 known-source S. Enteritidis outbreaks reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1985 through 1999", taken from this article: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/11/1/04-0401_article https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/11/1/04-0401_article

boomboomsubban 5y ago
Between 2 and 4 out of every hundred thousand people were getting sick from it, I don't know the exact maths but it seems believable that all of these statements are broadly true.
dsr_ 5y ago
Think about it this way: a household of 4 might use a dozen eggs per day. At 1:20000, that's 4.5 years between seeing contaminated eggs. If the sanitary procedures reduce risk by 80%, they have a problem every 22 years or so. A moderately busy restaurant can use a thousand eggs per day. If their procedures are only 95% effective, they have a problem almost every year. 300 outbreaks in 15 years suggests that restaurants have egg handling procedures that are better than 95% effective.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
  > a household of 4 might use a dozen eggs per day That's a lot!!! Even when I was raising chickens, we didn't get anywhere near those numbers: I gave away eggs like crazy. Maybe it's a societal thing? Certain cultures use eggs a lot more than others?
  - schwartzworld 5y ago
    Eggs are a pretty common breakfast item, and they are also used in many dishes. A dozen is on the high side, but if your whole family likes eggs for breakfast or you like to bake, I could see it.
  - dsr_ 5y ago
    I was giving a purposefully high estimate on the household side, and an easily exceeded estimate on the restaurant side -- a Denny's or Waffle House is probably higher, a McDonald's is probably much lower. That said, waffles and scrambled eggs are not an impossible breakfast, and if you also make bread and ice cream that day, two dozen is plausible. But that's unlikely to happen every day.
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boomboomsubban 5y ago

Between 2 and 4 out of every hundred thousand people were getting sick from it, I don't know the exact maths but it seems believable that all of these statements are broadly true.

dsr_ 5y ago

Think about it this way: a household of 4 might use a dozen eggs per day. At 1:20000, that's 4.5 years between seeing contaminated eggs. If the sanitary procedures reduce risk by 80%, they have a problem every 22 years or so. A moderately busy restaurant can use a thousand eggs per day. If their procedures are only 95% effective, they have a problem almost every year. 300 outbreaks in 15 years suggests that restaurants have egg handling procedures that are better than 95% effective.

HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
> a household of 4 might use a dozen eggs per day That's a lot!!! Even when I was raising chickens, we didn't get anywhere near those numbers: I gave away eggs like crazy. Maybe it's a societal thing? Certain cultures use eggs a lot more than others?
- schwartzworld 5y ago
  Eggs are a pretty common breakfast item, and they are also used in many dishes. A dozen is on the high side, but if your whole family likes eggs for breakfast or you like to bake, I could see it.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  I was giving a purposefully high estimate on the household side, and an easily exceeded estimate on the restaurant side -- a Denny's or Waffle House is probably higher, a McDonald's is probably much lower. That said, waffles and scrambled eggs are not an impossible breakfast, and if you also make bread and ice cream that day, two dozen is plausible. But that's unlikely to happen every day.

deleted 5y ago

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