Today is “World Egg Day,” a day that normally focuses on the positives of eggs and the egg industry. The recent egg recalls and salmonella outbreak have focused lots of negative attention on the industry. Iowa Egg Council spokesperson, Cayla Westergard, says they’ve tried to share all the information they can about the positives.
Westergard says they have gotten a lot of calls and she tells people that the egg supply is safe. She says Iowa produces 15-billion eggs from 60-million hens on a yearly basis. Westergard says they remind people of the importance of thoroughly cooking the eggs to make them safe. She says you need to make sure the baked eggs reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees, or over easy eggs need to have the egg white thoroughly set and thickened.
Westergard says eggs that are safely cooked have many health benefits. Westergard says every egg contains 13 essential vitamins and minerals for only 70 to 75 calories. She says they also are a goo source of high quality protein, and you can get one dozen eggs for less than two dollars, which she says is “a pretty good deal.”
The egg council says there are enough Iowa eggs produced annually to feed everyone in the world for two days or every U.S. citizen for nearly seven weeks.