Can you eat raw eggs?
The Real Answer
Yes, you can eat raw eggs, but there's a food safety risk. Raw eggs can contain Salmonella bacteria, which causes severe food poisoning. The risk is relatively low in the US due to testing requirements, but it's not zero. Pregnant people, young children, elderly people, and immunocompromised individuals should definitely avoid them. Most healthy adults who eat raw eggs don't get sick, but some will.
I love how our collective defense against salmonella is just pure optimism. We’re out here consuming liquid bird-potions that could actively take us out, and our entire safety plan is: “Well, my friend Kevin ate cookie dough once and he didn’t die.”
Basic sketch — the funniest questions get upgraded to a full cartoon.
Why People Ask This
This question usually comes up right after someone eats raw cookie dough or a runny egg yolk and suddenly realizes what they just put in their mouth. People also wonder because certain cuisines use raw eggs regularly (Japanese, Italian), which creates cognitive dissonance — if other countries do it safely, why is it a big deal here?