Australia still has an egg problem.

And the best South Australia Health can come up with is, don’t wash your dirty eggs. as Salmonella hits a five-year high and is on track to double the number of cases recorded in 2010.

The natural inclination to wash the dirt off may actually be pushing harmful bacteria through the porous shell, creating a food poisoning trap.

Health authorities say it is difficult to pinpoint a single cause for the spike in Salmonella but have issued a public safety alert urging care when preparing, cooking and storing food.

As of October 24 there had been 1056 confirmed cases for the year, compared to 668 for all of 2010.

Last year a total of 1210 cases were recorded but there had been 215 fewer cases at this time of the year.

SA Health Director of Public Health Services Dr Kevin Buckett said “food myths” could cause people to fall sick.

“For whole cuts of meat, bacteria may be present on the outer surfaces and that is why you need to sear the outside of the meat but can still eat it rare.

(Unless it’s needle tenderized).

“However, for whole animals such as spit roast chicken, lamb or pork, it is important to cook the meat all the way through and to make sure the juices run clear before serving.”

Dr Buckett said mincemeat should be thoroughly cooked until all pink colouring has gone and that chicken also must be cooked all the way through.

Dr. Buckett is perpetuating some myths. Color is a lousy indicatior, and considering his six-figure salary and the flunkies that write such palp, it’s just embarrassing.

“Always make raw egg dishes fresh on the day, keep foods refrigerated until you are ready to eat them and do not leave food with raw egg out of the fridge for any longer than two hours.”

SA Health will stage a display at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Thursday and Friday as part of Food Safety Week.

Taxpayers dollars at work: promoting scientifically invalid information, whle back-slapping that hey, we have a display.

No hospital should be serving a raw-egg based dish to any patients.

Just don’t eat raw eggs.

Rocky was an OK movie of an underdog, but he could barely put a sentence together.

Raw eggs? There’s a safer alternative. Cook ‘em, or use pasteurized eggs.

Penn and Teller, come and do a raw egg bit like you did on vaccines (NSFV).

A table of Australian egg outbreaks is available at https://barfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/raw-egg-related-outbreaks-australia-10-9-15.xlsx