Does the acid in lime juice cook eggs enough so that you don't get salmanella?

Question

when you are making frosting from scratch, usually you have to whip the egg whites. if you add lime juice, or something acidic, does it kill bacteria in the eggs so that is somewhat pasteurizes it?

Answer 1

No.  A weak acid such as lime juice will not kill salmonella.  Your stomach acid is stronger than lime juice, and the bacterium can easily survive in your stomach.

Cooking the egg is the best option.  If you cannot cook the egg (as in some recipes), you can buy pasteurized eggs or egg whites that are safe to use raw.

According to Wikipedia, the incidence of salmonella in raw eggs is about 1 in 30000 (in the US), which is pretty small, but still a fair chance of getting the bacterium.  Of course, I'm not sure what the contamination rate is for other foodstuffs...most of the recent scares in the US have been with vegetables, for example.

Answer 2

I think the chance of having salmonella in eggs is so very small that you shouldn't worry about it.

Obviously throw out any eggs that are already cracked or look dodgy.