The recent salmonella problem and how if affects Long Beach

The knowledge of such a widespread egg contamination is scary, but with reasonable precautions, the scare should be past for most of us.

First, the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services has been sending out inspectors to help businesses be sure that they do not still have any of the contaminated eggs. Some businesses ,such as El Cilantro, have even invited the health inspectors to come help them be sure that their eggs are safe.

Some of the contaminated eggs were sent to Albertson's and Ralph's grocery stores, but they have already been removed from the shelves. If you think you might have bought some of the contaminated eggs before they were removed from the stores, you can identify them by the Julian date found on Fort Worth Healthy Living Examiner, by Launa Virgo.

You should know, however, that salmonella contamination of eggs comes from the chicken feces. Chickens sit on the eggs after defecating and the bacteria can be absorbed right through the shell. Furthermore, some chickens are so exposed to salmonella that they actually carry it in their ovaries.

One of the these that causes this is the mass production of eggs and poultry. The chickens are kept confined defecating again and again. It is very difficult for mass produced poultry to be kept clean.

This is a good argument for buying your eggs from local farmers or even producing your own. Small farms often allow their chickens to roam free so their nests are not also their bathrooms. Chickens are let out of their coupes to be fed and allowed to remain free while the coupe and nests receive a thorough daily cleaning. Chickens are less exposed to feces that might carry the bacteria and are therefore less likely to pass it own.

However, no matter where you buy your eggs and poultry if you raise your own, eggs and chicken should always be thoroughly cooked. Eggs need to be cooked until they are solid, not runny. Chicken should show no red in the dark meat and no pink in the white meat.  If you have a recipe that calls for raw eggs, use only pasteurized eggs.

Chickens are not naturally dirty animals. No animals are. How clean they are depends on how well the farmer keeps their surroundings. Clean hen houses and nests make clean, healthy eggs. Chickens who spend their lives pinned down to the nest create filthy nests that cause diseases. The lives of industrial chickens are akin to a lifetime of cruel and unusual punishment for animals whose only sin is the ability to lay eggs.

Buy your eggs from small, local farms whenever you can and cannot  keep chickens of your own.

Chickens at Long Beach Grows.

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License for photograph of eggs.