Where the Recalled eggs may land ... not in the trash

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38851155...h-food_safety/


Eggs from suspect farms will be processed, sold
Iowa firms will pasteurize possibly tainted eggs for use in cookies, pet food

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By JoNel Aleccia Health writer
msnbc.com
updated 8/25/2010 3:36:57 PM ET

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Eggs from the two Iowa farms at the heart of a salmonella scare could still make it into your shopping basket — but not in the way you'd think.

The producers responsible for a recall of some 550 million potentially tainted eggs have found another outlet for the inventory that just keeps coming: Theyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll turn them into liquid eggs used in everything from cookies and cakes to egg substitutes and pet food.

Patricia El-Hinnawy, a spokeswoman for the federal Food and Drug Administration, confirmed Wednesday that Wright County Eggs and Hillandale Farms will send ongoing supplies of eggs from laying hens to so-called "breaking plants" to be processed and sold.

FDA and animal science experts say the eggs will be pasteurized, a process that indisputably kills the salmonella bacteria responsible for infections that have sickened at least 1,300 people.

"We can be confident that the pasteurized eggs are safe," said Dr. Theresia Lavergne, an associate professor of animal sciences at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

And officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture say that lots of the eggs suspected in the outbreak will be segregated from other eggs and subjected to a new, second inspection to ensure that no salmonella remains.

Public perception
Still, experts concede that the move to send previously tainted eggs into the market might not sit well with a public worried about food poisoning.
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"There's a possibility that consumers could overreact and consider them not safe when they really are," said Patricia Y. Hester, a professor of animal sciences at Purdue University. "There could be a public perception problem. There usually is."

At least one mother of young kids said she's appalled that the companies responsible for a massive recall can resell the eggs and put them back into the food supply.

"That's atrocious. It bothers me on a philosophical level," said Ilina Ewen, 41, of Raleigh, N.C., a blogger with Foodie Mama and mother of Carter, 7, and Neal, 5. "To me, even if the scientists say it's fine, it makes me not trust it. Scientists once said nicotine was fine, too."

Chickens from the affected farms are still laying millions of eggs a day. Nationwide, egg producers typically use about 70 percent of eggs for in-shell use, while about 30 percent go to breaking facilities for pasteurization and processing.

There are 57 egg breaking plants located in 23 states, according to the USDA. The three states with the most plants include Iowa, 16, Nebraska, 5, and Indiana, 4.

Eggs from those plants are used in a wide range of foods, said Daniel Sumner, director of the Agricultural Issues Center at the University of California at Davis. Commercial bakeries are big users, for instance.

Federal officials don't know which firms are likely to buy the eggs processed from chickens at Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, said USDA spokesman Caleb Weaver. Trace-back investigations are conducted only when there's a problem with food, and it's very rare for pasteurized eggs to pose problems, he said.

Still, he said that a special inspection process has been implemented for eggs from the farms in question. Employees from the two Iowa companies will test batches of the eggs after pasteurization and then report the results to USDA inspectors.

"It's an extra check to make sure it's going exactly as planned," Weaver said

Yes, heard this on the news and read it on CNN. They will be pasteurized and processed at the break plants and put into all kinds of stuff. They say the price of wholesale eggs are going to skyrocket and eventually trickle down too which really ticks me off because the recall wasn't our fault AND they're using the eggs anyway. If the price goes up too much I'll stop buying whole eggs I'll tell you that.

Can only hope the stuff that goes into our pet food doesn't cause illness....

They still won't "get it" either. They will continue to feed chickens special feed with growth horomones and other gunk. They will keep these fowls inside over crowded, badly ventilated "factory sheds" with no windows or access to the outside. And they wonder why the chickens aren't healthy if they just released them to wander the earth and eat normal feed- anything they carry bacterial-wise would be destroyed. But no, it all comes down to controlling the food-chain and greed.

If you haven't seen this movie- I urge you to run to your local video store (if it still exists in your area) and see if they carry it. If not, tell them to order it. It will change the way you look at your food forever and also change how you choose what you eat.

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Not only does this cause issues with the food we eat, imagine how those poor animals live. Calves ripped from their mothers at birth to stand in a stall only big enough for them to stand there. They can't move at all, and are fed awful steroids and such...just so people can have tender steaks. Chickens cramped in small cages and pens, living in their own feces...it's just horrific.

Whenever I buy meat/eggs I ALWAYS buy free-range. That means that the animal lived a happier and healthier life, and my food isn't full of icky junk I don't need nor want.

Originally Posted by Kazzy

Not only does this cause issues with the food we eat, imagine how those poor animals live. Calves ripped from their mothers at birth to stand in a stall only big enough for them to stand there. They can't move at all, and are fed awful steroids and such...just so people can have tender steaks. Chickens cramped in small cages and pens, living in their own feces...it's just horrific.

Whenever I buy meat/eggs I ALWAYS buy free-range. That means that the animal lived a happier and healthier life, and my food isn't full of icky junk I don't need nor want.

Click to expand...

Free range is a misnomer... It can indeed mean a open space and decent food and exercise ... but normally it equals outside is available... ie free range chickens have to have access to the outside ... it could be a 1foot by 3 foot pen attached to the house for 500 chickens... They often eat the same feed as the others...

Let's look at the eggs another way.

Had they been collected, broken, pasteurized, and used in various foods without ever being sold in the first place, you wouldn't know that at one time they were contaminated. That's what pasteurization is all about, after all. So, the mere fact they were shipped, some were found to be contaminated, they were returned, and re-processed doesn't mean much, as I think the FDA has said in this case.

And just to put a little different spin on some other points, the calves that are penned and used for veal are almost entirely male calves of milk cows who would have been slaughtered immediately after birth and sent to the rendering plant 30 years ago.

Most people don't know the definitions on their food and think "Free Range" really means something on their chicken packages. In nearly 100% of the cases, that's not correct. As Sharky points out, all it means is that the chickens have access to the outdoors for some part of the day for some small part of their life. Most don't take advantage of it; it would be like suddenly opening the door to a cat who had never been outdoors.

Originally Posted by sharky

Free range is a misnomer... It can indeed mean a open space and decent food and exercise ... but normally it equals outside is available... ie free range chickens have to have access to the outside ... it could be a 1foot by 3 foot pen attached to the house for 500 chickens... They often eat the same feed as the others...

Click to expand...

Free range means even less when you discover how damaging chickens are.

Lets say they do have a fairly large pen, but there's a few hundred of them going out there during the day. Anyone care to guess what that pen quickly turns into? Dirt. Chickens will rip everything up and eat it.

My in-laws have 9 free range chickens who have destroyed their fairly large pen. If it wasn't for the fact that we all pick some grass for them to much on, give them veggie scraps and insects, and that they let them into the larger part of the backyard all that free range would equate to is that they have a dirt pen to run around in and that they still eat chicken feed.


I'm fine with the pasteurized eggs being reused. Why waste food?
And I thought that pretty much all eggs and chicken coming out of farms like this could be expected to carry salmonella.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

And I thought that pretty much all eggs and chicken coming out of farms like this could be expected to carry salmonella.

Click to expand...

I thought that, too....I was surprised at the recall and uproar. I always figured that you just don't eat undercooked eggs, same as never eating undercooked chicken. I thought it was a given. Oh well.

I, too, have no problem with them using the eggs after they're pasteurized.
That should take care of the problem.

For those wondering about the fully cooked temp of eggs it is 160 degrees...
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/...rs/index.asp#7


I post this as they said pet foods were a possible place they tainted eggs were going ... which with all the recalls for just this in pet food has me shaking my head...

Originally Posted by mrblanche

Let's look at the eggs another way.
And just to put a little different spin on some other points, the calves that are penned and used for veal are almost entirely male calves of milk cows who would have been slaughtered immediately after birth and sent to the rendering plant 30 years ago.

Click to expand...

Here anyway (on a dairy farm) bull calves are kept with their mother long enough for the mother to clean the calf off. They are then seperated and fed the mothers colostrium. You keep them for a few days and during that time they get unmedicated milk replacer. Then they are picked up and either are butchered right away or raised for beef. There is no use for bull calves at a dairy farm so what do you do but sell them???

Heifer calves are taken away after their mother cleans them off and fed their mothers milk. Differant farms have differant sized stalls but most aren't "standing room only". Else the calves go into hutches/domes which again are fairly good sized.

Why take calves away so soon from their mothers? A lot of reasons...first off heifers (first time mothers) aren't incredibly smart. Often they will not want anything to do with their calf so won't clean it. You would be suprised how many times the cow will accidently kill their calf by stepping on it or laying on it... Other cows will get incredibly protective of their calf and will try kill you if you get to close. The longer the calf is with its mother the more protective the mom gets...too many people are killed that way

Anyway, back on the original topic. I'm guessing the price of eggs is going to go way up even though the egg farmers are making money off of the recalled eggs The farm cats get raw eggs every other week and I'm not going to quit feeding them the eggs. They are made to handle this stuff after all!
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