Raw chicken eggs are in many commonly consumed foods – eggnog, hollandaise sauce and mayonnaise, to name a few – and since about one of every 20,000 chicken eggs in the U.S. runs a high risk of containing Salmonella bacteria, the only way to be sure these bacteria are killed is to hard-boil the eggs or pasteurize them via hot-water immersion.
However, doing either of those things changes the taste, texture and color of the eggs, qualities that some consumers find objectionable. Now, prototype research studies by scientists at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Princeton University have found that raw eggs artificially infected with Salmonella bacteria can be zapped almost completely free of it by using radio waves, and that these waves, combined with a subsequent hot-water bath, can more quickly pasteurize eggs without objectionable after-effects.
FoodWorld 