Salmonella spp. Quantification in Whole Liquid Eggs before Pasteurization

Here, we investigated the positivity rate and the number of Salmonella bacteria in whole liquid eggs before pasteurization. First, we evaluated the effectiveness of the most-probable-number method. Next, we analyzed the positivity rate and number of Salmonella in 410 pre-pasteurization whole liquid eggs samples. Of those, 106 (25.9%) were positive for Salmonella and 86 (81.1%) contained low concentrations of Salmonella (<10 MPN/g). These quantitative findings support the evaluation of pasteurization validity in whole liquid egg manufacturing and provide a basis for food safety baselines.