Here, we investigated the positivity rate and the number of Salmonella bacteria in whole liquid eggs before pasteurization. First, we evaluated the effectiveness of the most-probable-number method. Next, we analyzed the positivity rate and number of Salmonella in 410 pre-pasteurization whole liquid eggs samples. Of those, 106 (25.9%) were positive for Salmonella and 86 (81.1%) contained low concentrations of Salmonella (<10 MPN/g). These quantitative findings support the evaluation of pasteurization validity in whole liquid egg manufacturing and provide a basis for food safety baselines.
