Eggs are pasteurized to kill Salmonella and other harmful bacteria without cooking the egg. This matters most when eggs will be eaten raw or lightly cooked, since thorough cooking already destroys these pathogens. Pasteurization uses carefully controlled heat, just warm enough to eliminate bacteria but cool enough to keep the egg liquid and functionally raw.
The Salmonella Problem
Salmonella Enteritidis is the primary reason pasteurized eggs exist. This particular strain can infect a hen’s ovaries and end up inside the egg before the shell even forms, meaning the contamination isn’t just on the surface. Washing and refrigerating eggs reduces risk but can’t address bacteria already sealed inside.
The scale of the problem is real. A September 2024 CDC outbreak linked to eggs caused 93 confirmed illnesses across 12 states, with 34 hospitalizations. That’s a single tracked outbreak. Most cases of Salmonella from eggs go unreported because people assume they just have a stomach bug. Symptoms typically include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps lasting four to seven days. For healthy adults, it’s miserable but survivable. For vulnerable populations, it can become dangerous.
Who Needs Pasteurized Eggs Most
The CDC specifically recommends pasteurized eggs for people with weakened immune systems, including those with diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease, HIV, autoimmune disorders like lupus, and anyone receiving chemotherapy or radiation. Young children, older adults, and pregnant women also face higher risk of severe complications from Salmonella infection.
Beyond individual health conditions, pasteurized eggs solve a culinary problem. Many recipes call for raw or barely cooked eggs: Caesar dressing, homemade mayonnaise, mousse, hollandaise sauce, tiramisu, meringue, eggnog, and protein shakes. If you’re making any of these, pasteurized eggs let you follow the recipe without gambling on food safety.
How Pasteurization Works
The challenge is that Salmonella dies at temperatures well below the point where egg proteins solidify, but the margin is narrow. Commercial shell egg pasteurization typically involves submerging eggs in precisely heated water baths at around 57 to 58°C (about 135°F) for extended periods. At 58°C, eggs stay submerged for up to 65 minutes. At 57°C, the process takes up to 85 minutes. The lower the temperature, the longer the required time, because bacterial destruction is a function of both heat and duration.
This is warm enough to kill Salmonella throughout the egg but not hot enough to firm up the whites or yolks. The egg comes out looking and behaving essentially the same as a raw egg. Liquid egg products sold in cartons go through a similar process, with the eggs cracked and heated in continuous-flow systems before packaging.
How to Identify Pasteurized Eggs
The FDA requires unpasteurized shell eggs to carry a specific safe handling label: “To prevent illness from bacteria: keep eggs refrigerated, cook eggs until yolks are firm, and cook foods containing eggs thoroughly.” Pasteurized shell eggs are exempt from this requirement because they’ve already been treated to kill Salmonella. So one quick way to check is to look for (or notice the absence of) that warning.
Pasteurized shell eggs are also sometimes stamped with a “P” or labeled explicitly as pasteurized on the carton. That said, they can be surprisingly hard to find in grocery stores. Pasteurized liquid egg whites in cartons are much more widely available than whole pasteurized eggs in the shell.
Pasteurizing Eggs at Home
A sous vide immersion circulator is the most reliable tool for home pasteurization. These devices hold water at a precise temperature for as long as you need, which is exactly what pasteurization demands. One tested approach uses a water bath set to 135°F (57.2°C) for 90 minutes, slightly padding the time and temperature beyond the minimum required to account for variation in egg size and starting temperature.
Without a sous vide setup, home pasteurization is risky. A regular pot of water on a stovetop fluctuates too much in temperature. A few degrees too low and you haven’t killed the bacteria. A few degrees too high and you start cooking the egg whites. The precision matters because you’re working in a narrow band between “safe” and “scrambled.”
Effects on Cooking and Nutrition
Pasteurization does slightly change how eggs perform in the kitchen. The gentle heat partially denatures some proteins in the whites, which means pasteurized egg whites take longer to whip into a foam and produce slightly less volume. Angel food cakes made with pasteurized whites, for example, may not rise quite as high. Commercial producers sometimes add trace minerals like iron or aluminum salts to offset this effect and restore foaming ability.
On the nutrition side, pasteurization may actually work in your favor. Raw egg whites contain a protein called avidin that binds to biotin (vitamin B7) and blocks its absorption. Heating egg whites to at least 65°C for five minutes deactivates avidin without damaging the amino acid profile. Since pasteurization temperatures hover in this range, pasteurized eggs preserve more biotin availability than truly raw eggs. Raw eggs can also be harder to digest for some people, causing bloating or nausea, partly because intact proteins in unheated whites resist breakdown in the gut.
Storage and Shelf Life
Pasteurized shell eggs need refrigeration just like regular eggs and stay good for three to five weeks. Liquid pasteurized egg products in cartons last up to seven days unopened at 40°F or below, and no more than three days once opened. Frozen pasteurized egg products keep for up to a year. Always follow any “use-by” date on the package, since pasteurization eliminates existing bacteria but doesn’t prevent recontamination or spoilage over time.