According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we should cook alfalfa

sprouts, because eating raw sprouts can lead to salmonella food poisoning. It's especially

important not to eat raw sprouts if you're particularly old or young, immunosuppressed

and pregnant.

How serious of an issue is this?

Over the last few decades, at least 2,700 Americans have been sickened by sprouts.

That's more than 100 people a year.

Of course, during that same time, more than 100,000 Americans were being food poisoned by

eggs contaminated with salmon. Indeed, salmonel in eggs is a national epidemic in the United States,

and salmonella is a gift that can keep on giving triggering arthritis sometimes,

which in rare cases can last a lifetime.

So, no, sprouts on that sandwich, but do you hear the CDC saying no eggs, even though they

cause a thousand times more illness?

No, but the CDC does say no raw or running eggs, no soft-boiled eggs, no sunny-side-up.

Even the egg industry itself admits that over-easy-side-up where soft-boiled eggs can't be considered safe.

No wonder eggs are sickening 100,000 Americans a year. Eggs have to be cooked hard to kill off

their bacteria. Similarly, if we boiled our sprouts, they'd be safe too, but no one wants to do that

either. The largest national sampling was from about a decade ago,

when the Food and Drug Administration tested sprouts in sprout facilities

from all over the United States,

the agency found that 1% of alfalfa sprout samples were affected,

and even worse, 10% of alfalfa sprout seed samples were, too.

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