June 3, 2010

Are your eggs.. safe?

Egg, telur,  蛋， easily one of the most important foods in our everyday diet. We gotta respect the first prehistoric human who looked at the egg and said “I’m gonna eat that liquid chicken!”

From that fateful day many thousands of years ago until very recently, the production, preparation, and consumption of eggs hasn’t really changed that much. Until now..

so when is an egg not an ordinary egg?

But before we get to that, here’re some trivia on eggs that you might find interesting:

• Malaysians eat an aeverage of 305 eggs per person per year
• The longest throw of a fresh egg without breaking it is 98.51 meters
• The older the hen, the larger the egg
• A fresh egg will sink in water while an older egg will stand up.
• The average hen will lay an average of 300-325 eggs a year, taking 24-26 hours to lay a single egg
• A raw egg will wobble and a cooked egg will spin freely if you spin it
• It is estimated that there are 4.93 billion egg-laying hens in the world. China is the world’s largest egg producer with approximately 20.25 million tonnes
• The only pasteurized eggs sold in Malaysia are “Safegg” from Safe Food Corporation, available now at all leading hypermarkets

Healthy Living talk show, and the launch of Safegg

Last week I was invited to attend the “Healthy Living” talk show with the launch and cooking demonstration of Safeegg, which brings us to the latest method of egg production and preparation – pasteurized shell eggs.

The talk show and speeches were given by YB Datuk Hajjah Rohani Haji Abdul Karim, the deputy minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, Yong-Sik Cho, CEO of Safe Food Corporation (SFC), Professor Gulam Rusul Rahmat Ali, University Sains Malaysia, and Maverick Lee, MD of SFC, and Mr. Kong Vee Hong, GM of SFC (I went to uni with him back in the States!)

the nasty Salmonella bacteria

The picture above shows the nasty Salmonella bacteria under electron microscope, this is the very bacteria that infect 142,000 Americans and causes some 30 death yearly. Basically one of the major causes of food poisoning that leads to diarrhea, dehydration, and in more severe cases, death.

This nasty stuff can be found in contaminated egg whites, you don’t really want to mess with it.

Safegg live cooking demonstration

To be honest, before attending this event, I didn’t even know that pasteurization of shelled eggs even existed. The technology is actually from Korea to treat bacteria at low temperature, without the need of chemicals. During the process, the eggs are also coated with a protective layer of food grade mineral oil to prevent cross-contamination and keep the eggs fresh longer.

Through this method, harmful salmonella bacteria are killed but the nutritional value and tastes of the eggs remain.

The tell tale sign of a pasteurized egg is that the egg white appears to be slightly opaque instead of completely transparent.

the eggnog was absolutely fantastic

After the show, we proceeded to the Safegg cooking demonstration where I helped myself to a few omelete, “mata kerbau”, desserts, and that addictive eggnog. They were delish!

Safegg is now available at all major hypermarkets in the country.