Occurrence of salmonellas in raw and pasteurized liquid whole egg

Abstract

The presence of salmonellas was determined in 8 691 samples taken from various stages in the manufacture of liquid whole egg as well as from the factory environment. Salmonellas
were found in 351 samples and included 29 serotypes. Samples of bulked unpasteurized liquid egg had a much higher incidence of salmonellas (15·3%) than the individual eggs from which they were prepared (O·2%). The occurrence of these organisms in liquid whole egg did not appear to be related to the degree of bacteriological contamination of the product. Pasteurization of whole egg reduced the incidence of salmonellas from 20·6% in the samples of unpasteurized egg to 0·04 % in the samples of the pasteurized product.