Please tell me I won't get salmonella.... I'm such an idiot

[LadyoftheBathtub]

I can't believe I've done this again but at the weekend I ate some caesar dressing with raw eggs in it. I was so exhausted (from being pg) and hungry and trying to manage DS in a busy cafe and didn't think. (Last time I was pg I are some rare meat and freaked out with worry - why can't I be a bit less clueless, arrgggh)

Sooo, according to the Interweb, if I'm going to get salmonella I would get symptoms 12-72 hours after exposure. I've got another 24 hours or so before that time period is up and I'm really trying not to worry - I know not all eggs have salmonella in - but I don't think I will be able relax unless I can get to tomorrow lunchtime OK. We are supposed to be going on holiday at the weekend and I would hate to cancel (as well as obviously I would hate to be seriously ill for the next week...)

Can anyone reassure me it's unlikely? I could kick myself.

You are highly unlikely to get salmonella. We've all done things that breach the guidelines and have been OK. In my second pg I craved Caesar salad so badly - and regularly succumbed to the craving!

The chances are that it was made with dressing out of a bottle, in which case the eggs will have nbeen pasteurised. OTOH, if it was in the sort of place where the dressing is made fresh, then let's hope it was umparket enough to be very high quilaty and in a nice clean kitchen.

Thanks annie! Obviously it doesn't help much that I feel sick anyway - but atm it just feels like my normal morning sickness and not anything else.

Luckily I'm not stressing 24/7, I've managed to put it out of my mind for a good few hours at a time so far.

Oh that's good to hear that you had it a few times candles.

Twas John Lewis cafe - I checked afterwards and they said they did use raw eggs, but I know they are food hygiene conscious and not a dodgy outfit at least.

most eggs are vaccinated these days - also restaurants often use pasteurised egg that you buy in cartons (like juice) which would kill most bacteria anyway.

Don't restaurants use cartons of pasteurised fresh eggs? I'm sure I read that in the paper - and if so, surely you'll be fine?

UK has safest eggs in Europe. Massive chicken vaccination programme to kill out salmonella (red lion stamp scheme). FSA tested almost 30,000 eggs a couple of years ago and found not a single one infected. Can't imagine John Lewis would be importing cheap eggs from abroad. So, you'll be fine. Nothing to worry about.

Thank you all, I am feeling a bit more confident now - glad I posted.

When I checked they said cheerily "yes we use raw eggs... but they are free range!" I'm sure they are reasonably poncy waitrose-stylee UK eggs. Not sure they will be the pasteurised carton ones, but possibly.

Just to clarify - the carton ones are raw, just lightly pasteurised, and come in free-range/organic/normal etc.

If they are making any quantity of stuff I'd be surprised if they used shell-on eggs because of the logistics involved in cracking them, separating them etc.

This is particularly true of something like caesar dressing which uses only the yolk. You can buy pre-separated eggs for this. Otherwise imagine the logistics for the kitchen of a) separating all those yolks and b) disposing of all the whites. Souffle anyone?