“Health from eating” series | National Nutrition Week: Sterilized eggs are not sterile, do you still dare to eat them “raw”?

As the main consumer groups in society change, young people pursue higher quality egg consumption. Among them, new ways of eating eggs, such as soft-boiled eggs, cloud eggs, and hot spring eggs, have quickly become popular, accelerating the penetration of raw eggs in the domestic market. However, are sterile eggs really sterile? Can they really be eaten raw? Do they have higher nutritional value? Professor Liu Jingbo of the School of Food Science and Engineering at Jilin University explains to you.

In fact, sterile eggs generally refer to eggs that have been strictly controlled for Salmonella during the egg farming process and egg processing process, but they are not completely sterile. It is more appropriate to call them "Salmonella-free eggs". The so-called "sterile" mainly refers to the fact that the bacteria do not contain Salmonella. Therefore, when consumers eat sterile eggs, they should pay attention to the shelf life (usually within 15 days after the eggs are produced) and store them in a refrigerated environment at 2-8°C to ensure the freshness and taste of the eggs and inhibit the reproduction of microorganisms. If slight cracks are found on the surface of sterile eggs, the inside may have been contaminated and it is not recommended to eat them raw. In particular, the elderly, children, and pregnant women should avoid eating sterile eggs directly raw.

In terms of nutritional value, there is no difference in the nutritional composition of sterilized eggs and ordinary eggs. Raw eggs contain protease inhibitors, which will affect the digestion and absorption of protein. However, if raw eggs are cooked into soft-boiled eggs, the absorption effect of eggs can be maximized. The "Nutrition Guidelines for Egg Consumption (2022)" points out that under five different heat treatment intensities, including fresh eggs, hot spring eggs, soft-boiled eggs, fully cooked eggs, and overcooked eggs, the comprehensive evaluation of the cooking method of soft-boiled eggs has the highest protein digestibility, taste and color, as well as complete nutritional retention, and is a relatively better way to eat eggs. Therefore, raw eggs that control Salmonella can not only meet people's diverse egg consumption needs influenced by Western food, Japanese food, etc., but also have better nutritional absorption effects.

Food safety affects the nutritional health of hundreds of millions of families. We encourage and expect more Chinese egg companies to establish and promote industry standards for edible eggs, and to establish a standardized, systematic and scientific egg-laying chicken industry system to meet the consumer demand for diversified egg consumption scenarios in my country.

Expert: Liu Jingbo, professor of the School of Food Science and Engineering, Jilin University