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Cook those possibly salmonella-tainted eggs thoroughly -- or better yet, take no chances

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Before you make breakfast, check the egg carton. Does it bear the name Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph’s, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms or Kemps?

If so, those scrambled eggs may have to wait.

Egg supplier Wright County Egg has recalled many of those eggs -- suspected, it turns out, in a recent increase in salmonella cases. Normally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gets about 50 reports of salmonella cases each week; in the last few months, the agency has been getting about 200 cases a week.

Here’s the egg recall notice, as posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s website. And here’s the pertinent information as distilled in an e-mail from the California Department of Public Health:

“The eggs were processed by plants with identification numbers 1026, 1413 and 1946. Plant identification codes can be found stamped on the end of the egg carton. The plant number is preceded with the letter ‘P’ and followed by a three-digit number. The recall applies to numbers 136 to 225. For example: P-1946 223 would be a carton subject to the recall. The Julian production dates in question, 136-225, convert to May 16 – August 13 calendar dates.”

The FDA also offers a broader explanation of the ongoing salmonella investigation, with advice on how to handle raw eggs and links to even more food-safety advice. When you cook eggs, it says, cook them thoroughly. But it’s better to discard these eggs or return them to the store, the agency says.

But what you really might want to know is this -- symptoms of salmonella poisoning and what to do about them. It’s not pretty. We’ll let MedicineNet do the honors.

-- Tami Dennis / Los Angeles Times

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