Freshly laid eggs can pick up microbes like salmonella and e.coli from the hen's environment. These microbes remain on the shell, contaminating other foods and entering the egg over time.
New radiation technology is being deployed to disinfect eggs using soft electron beams, helping to make this staple safer and easier to trade worldwide.
Recent research introduced a 'dry and cold' method to disinfect whole eggs using soft electron beams. “This equipment is not only a victory for technology, it is also a model of collaboration in science and industry” says Lui Yanqin of Tongweixinda, the research arm of an electron beam company, formed from Tsinghua University and the NUCTECH company in China. “Data shows that untreated samples had about 100 000 bacteria per egg, but soft electrons reduced this to less than about ten.”