Pregnant Women have it kind of rough; on top of not being guaranteed paid maternity leave in the United States (a subject for another article and another day), they are not able to take many kinds of prescription drugs, as scarcely an advert for those goes by without a disclaimer concerning pregnant women, and of course there are foods and drink that they should not have which include but are not limited to: alcoholic beverages, most kinds of seafood in high amounts, and in most cases raw eggs. The first one can result in a very unhealthy child being born, and the second can lead to too much mercury in the body and the third is thought to contribute to the nasty foodborne illness, Salmonella. Enter the United Kingdom as a pregnant lady however and feel free to scarf raw eggs according to a new study published by a safety committee.
My first thought when I heard raw eggs are now safe to eat in the United Kingdom was that people, pregnant women or otherwise, would now really start to hit the raw prepackaged cookie dough with a vengeance but that ignores the specifics of the raw eggs in question. The United Kingdom’s eggs are produced under a unique set of safety and animal welfare rules called the UK’s Lions Code which among other things requires the vaccination of hens against salmonella which reduces the risk of getting it from raw egg substantially. This means that for the first time since 2001 the Food Standards Agency will review the impact of raw eggs on health, because if it’s safe for a pregnant woman to eat it’s probably safe for everyone else too. No word on if the United States will adjust their standards or immunize their hens like the British do, but one question remains: who the heck eats raw egg intentionally?
