Wait, what?

As I was reading today’s news from ThePoultrySite while exfoliating in the bath, I noticed The New South Wales Food Authority, the state where Sydney is, is investigating 49 cases of Salmonella poisoning, suspected to be from consuming foods containing raw egg.

The rest of the story wasn’t about people barfing, it was about a Poultry CRC project examining how defects in shell quality and structure may increase the risk of bacteria on the outside of the egg shell entering the egg. This research is being led by Associate Professor Julie Roberts at the University of New England in Armidale. ??By investigating the incidence (and significance) of minor defects in the ultrastructure of the egg shell, such as translucency, the project aims to quantify the ease with which bacteria causing food-borne illness are able to penetrate the egg shell. This involves a number of research approaches; traditional measures of egg quality, cuticle staining, shell ultrastructure assessment and microbial studies.

But what about the sick people? No other public reporting, nothing on the NSW Food Authority web site, nothing, even though Australia still has a serious egg problem.

A table of raw-egg related outbreaks in Australia (thanks Gonzalo and Sol) is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/raw-egg-related-outbreaks-australia.