Is there a higher risk of salmonella from store bought eggs vs eggs from a backyard chicken?
Image by halcyonsting
A backyard break. First time outdoors since we brought them home.
Question by Zoo Keeper: Is there a higher risk of salmonella from store bought eggs vs eggs from a backyard chicken?
Or is there no difference? Only interested in salmonella, not other factors for eggs
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
6 Responses to Is there a higher risk of salmonella from store bought eggs vs eggs from a backyard chicken?
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No difference I would say although no matter what eggs from home are better 99.9% of store bought eggs come from chickens or hens or whatever one it comes from are pumped with chemicals that make them preduce more eggs in a short amount of time its like if humans could have baby’s every 9 months for 10 years and they give you stuff to make every baby come out in 5 making you have 20 babies instead of having 9 babies I’m useing this example beacouse chickens preduce eggs for years straight
Shane
January 21, 2013 at 1:21 am
Not all of us purchase eggs that were pumped with chemicals. Whether you buy them straight from the farm or from the store shelf… if they pump their chickens with antibiotics… it’ll be in the eggs from the farm as well as the store. But the risk of salmonella isn’t there. Eggs come out of the chicken and sit, unrefrigerated… and can for some time. So eggs are pretty sustainable.
To assure you’re getting good eggs, whether from the farm (backyard or otherwise), or from the store… read the box… buy cage-free and organic. Then you know the eggs aren’t pumped with chemicals.
JanetM
January 21, 2013 at 2:15 am
Short answer is backyard eggs but you’re probably fine anyway. Overall, the risk of salmonella from an egg is VERY low. The risk comes from pooling raw eggs together. For example, if the risk of an egg having salmonella is 1/10,000 then putting 1000 eggs in the same container means the risk is 1/10. Moreover, ALL 1000 eggs are now contaminated. This is where the real danger comes in. At home, you’re probably okay making an omelet but restaurants pool eggs all the time. They’re not supposed to. Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about salmonella from eggs eaten at home if I were you.
To answer your question though, backyard chicken eggs are probably safer. Since they’re in the backyard, the chickens can run around and be chickens so there is less chance for sickness to spread. The chickens will by-and-large be healthier than a factory farm chicken. On the other hand, stores and factory farms are subject to sanitation inspections so you can be reasonably sure that those eggs are safe too.
Either way, your risk of salmonella is extremely low either way. Probably the safest bet is to buy free range chicken eggs from the store. They’ll be expensive though. My suggestion is to support your local farmers by buying them at the local farmers’ market. You run a very low risk and you’re supporting the local food movement.
tie guy
January 21, 2013 at 3:00 am
Depends on the backyard chickens.
Large industrial processes have a good side and a bad side. On one hand, they process such a high volume of product, that they inevitably have more possible sources of contamination. On the other, industry means they follow many systems to prevent such contamination, something which is much rarer in the amateur backyard operator.
For instance, I once knew a chef who scratched his balls constantly while at work. Based on this one incident, would you be more likely to get food poisoning at a private restaurant or from a large food manufacturing plant like Stouffers?
Smells like New Screen Names
January 21, 2013 at 3:16 am
I thought shop eggs were like immunised? Well the chickens who had them?
carol
January 21, 2013 at 3:51 am
Totally agree with tie guy’s excellent answer. You can get a bit more details about all that in my previous answer here though if you’re interested (including which people shouldn’t even take that tiny chance):
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100821104823AAnCqT0
(and this too?) http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100627183139AAvTZEj
.
Diane B.
January 21, 2013 at 3:52 am