Egg Safety Regulations Scrutinized

Once considered nature’s perfect food, the egg has become the primary contributor to food poisoning in the United States. Wednesday, a nutrition advocacy group in Washington called for federal regulations that could make raw eggs reliably safe to eat. Under current regulations, eggs are rarely inspected for safety.

The action by the group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, comes a day after the Clinton administration called for more safety regulations for eggs as well as fruits and vegetables.

Egg producers have resisted government efforts to mandate inspections, saying that voluntary actions undertaken by the industry will work as well.

The science center petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require mandatory analyses on egg farms, several annual inspections of egg plants, the storage of eggs at 41 degrees at all times, a warning to restaurants not to combine unpasteurized eggs from different sources unless they are cooked, and a label on egg cartons warning not to eat raw eggs.

Federal officials first detected salmonella in eggs in New England in 1986. Today contaminated eggs are found coast to coast. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says as many as 45 percent of all egg-laying flocks are contaminated with salmonella enteritidis.