I like eggs, they’re a baking essential and a useful protein source; Sorenne likes them boiled, but only the white parts.

When I buy eggs, I can get free-range, cage-free, omega-3 and probably many others.

What I can’t get is information on the microbiological  safety of eggs at retail; and these huckster labels are poor surrogates for safety.

In 2010, at least 2,000 people were sickened with Salmonella from eggs produced by DeCoster farms in Iowa.

Three years later, federal prosecutors are still seeking criminal charges.

Attorneys in Iowa’s Northern District are waiting to sentence a former manager of an Iowa egg company involved in the 2010 outbreak that sickened about 2,000 people, possibly to see what testimony he provides to a grand jury that continues to investigate the case.

Tony Wasmund, 62, of Willmar, Minn., pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to bribe a federal egg inspector at Wright County Egg, one of the Iowa egg farms operated by Austin “Jack” DeCoster and Peter DeCoster, a father and son from Clarion.

Wasmund’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 16, nearly a year after he took a plea deal from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The delay feeds speculation that prosecutors are using Wasmund’s testimony to a Cedar Rapids grand jury to implicate others in the DeCoster egg operations.

I understand the law takes a long time; divorce court goes on forever. But there is nothing stopping the better egg producers from bragging about safety, today. And not in scripted media tours targeted at specialized journalists, I want to know, shopping, with my kids.

And I don’t want a cartoon on Sesame Street, I want microbiological data. The best should be loud and proud and brag at retail.