How Many Jobs Before Adulthood?

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:12 pm

My generation was unique in many ways I believe, particularly with jobs we had as kids and before adulthood.

Jobs Before Adulthood

* * * * *Before or after school & Saturday

First real job was delivering "The Saturday Evening Post" Age 9

Second was delivering " The Paterson Independent" Age 11

Delivered the "The Littleton Independent" Age 13

Delivered "The San Francisco Examiner" Age 14

Delivered "The Oakland Shopping News" Age 14

Washed clothes for a "Washateria" Age 14 *

Box Boy for large grocery store Age 14

House Cleaning for eight homes-- dusting,vacuuming,sinks, toilets etc. Age 15

Doorman at Movie Theatre Age 16

Factory Worker (graveyard shift) lied about being age 18--Age 17

Unloaded Freight Cars. * * * Age 17

Shipping & Receiving Clerk. *Age 17

U.S. Air Force * ---- *Age 18 to 22. Off to Korea

Age 22 College, courtesy of the G.I. Bill and working for "Coroner's Office"

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:22 pm

My first real job was beating Cedar. I was 14. It paid well but it was hard labor out in the weather and I usually did it in the heat of summer. The rest were mainly odd jobs like changing peoples oil, a news paper route cleaning the school in the evenings. I also cut also cut and sold wood, picked huckle berries and chained people up during snow storms on the big hill by where I lived.

Lady J · Post by **Lady J** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:45 pm

How do you mange to remember what age you did these chores?

I scrubbed marble steps for a quarter each Saturday...I was probably about 11 years. I walked dogs and tended to cats for my neighbors. I shoveled snow a lot too..I also was a referee for basketball and softball games in my late teens.

I put myself thru high school with after school jobs and often held two jobs plus school.

I don't mean to digress, but what has happened to the mentality of working for a living?

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:02 pm

:guitarist[QUOTE=Lady J;1386040]How do you mange to remember what age you did these chores?

Lon replies

It really isn't hard for me to remember things like that, unfortunately though, I sometimes have trouble remembering people's names.

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:52 am

Lon;1386041 wrote: :guitarist[QUOTE=Lady J;1386040]How do you mange to remember what age you did these chores?

Lon replies

It really isn't hard for me to remember things like that, unfortunately though, I sometimes have trouble remembering people's names.

That's pld age for you - you can remember what you did when you were eleven but not where you out your false teeth.

I never got any pocket money I had top earn it. A lot of the jobs I did as a kid you aren't allowed to do now for safety reasons. Paper boy, delivering milk, delivering messages on a bike kids can't do these kinds of things now. The one I hated most was fruit picking and next to that brocolli, I can still shut my eyes and see the rows in front of me. See all these pick your own farms forget it give me a supermarket any day.

tabby · Post by **tabby** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:27 am

Scrat;1386038 wrote: My first real job was beating Cedar. I was 14. It paid well but it was hard labor out in the weather and I usually did it in the heat of summer. The rest were mainly odd jobs like changing peoples oil, a news paper route cleaning the school in the evenings. I also cut also cut and sold wood, picked huckle berries and chained people up during snow storms on the big hill by where I lived.

What is "beating cedar"?

tabby · Post by **tabby** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:52 am

The only thing I did to earn money in my childhood was pick up pine cones in the yard so my dad could cut the grass. We had a lot of mature loblolly pines and the ground was littered with cones. He'd give me some pocket change ... it was easy money! Other than that and the tooth fairy, I don't remember any money coming my way or wanting any for that matter.

As a teen, I used to work every summer for the city's Department of Recreation as a playground attendant, basically babysitting about 15 kids at a time, teaching them crafts, playing games, that sort of thing. I also did the requisite babysitting for neighborhood children. It was effortless at the time but would probably frazzle me now. I think I could still manage the pine cone job though!

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:53 am

Mowed lawns

worked in a pottery factory pouring molds

pumped gas

electricians helper

took engines apart for my dad at his shop

pumped gas again

became a machinist

koan · Post by **koan** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:32 am

When I was about 7 my older and younger brothers and I used to deliver adverts for a set rate. We divided the neighbourhood up but my older brother had to keep tabs on the youngers.

I had my own paper route at 11 after we moved cities. I kept that for about two and a half years. That was paid by portions of the route collections.

I got my first hourly job at 14, which was the legal hiring age at the time, at Tim Hortons. I switched to McDonalds as it was considered "cooler" but they didn't let me wear nail polish so I switched back to Tim Hortons around 16yrs old, when I left home.

I worked there until I dropped out of school, took a youth alternative program but moved cities again with my live in boyfriend and ended up working at a cottage industry company painting carousel horses and whimsical "critters" that we sold to rich people.

When I realised I was living with a misogynist who was sleeping with all my friends, I moved back home, went back to school and got a job at a gas company at age 19.

Next was retail, at Paddington's Bed 'n" Bath, where I sold fine linens and fancy bathroom accessories for minimum wage.

I started dealing Amway before I left Padddingtons.

Then I went to HMV music store just before I turned 20.

Tried waitressing at 20.

Applied for university Set Design program but they cancelled it that year so I went to Humber College instead for Tech Production in Theatre, which turned out to be sham course so I quit.

Worked temp to pay the bills in the welfare office: small isolated room answering an endlessly ringing telephone, half the time it was people with no worker number falsely being given my number to call, knowing that I can't put their call through without a worker number.

Next landed a job as receptionist at Dalt's Honda in Toronto. Had to file a sexual harassment case which was resolved by management telling me to dress "less sexy."

Saved enough money to feel comfortable letting my parents pay for the rest of my tuition for trade school learning Makeup for Film and Television, two years later started that career full time until injury at the age of about 35.

So, I've pretty much worked since I was 7.

eta: I don't recall being given my "portion" of the ad deliveries at 7yrs, my younger brother was only 5.

the newspapers were paid based on # of subcribers plus tips, not by percentage.

oh, yeah... and I assembled pizza boxes between the newspaper job and Tim Hortons

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 8:08 pm

What is "beating cedar"?

Cut down some cedar trees out in the forest trim off limbs ect. Take them to a relatively flat and open place (preferably where the summer sun is in no way blocked and the winter wind is in no way obstructed) and cut the smaller ones into 10' lengths and the bigger into 6' lengths.

Go into town, find a hormonally confused young teenager (over dosing on Orange Crush preferably) behaving strangely in the street in front of the local super market. Take him aside and explain the facts of life, work = money = a nice car = girls ect. Talk to his mom and arrange for him to be up and in front of the house at 4am the next morning.

Pick him up and take him to the gulag you have prepared, show him how to use a double bladed axe, 8 lb maul and the various wedges and a peavey. Teach him how to split the cedar logs into posts and rails. Pay him .75 for a rail and $1.50 for a post. Make sure he is adept with the tools so that he doesn't hurt himself and eventually you can teach him to use the 36" chainsaw also. Make sure to remind him often the harder he works the more money he makes = the better car he gets = the more girls he has. Always remind him of this key point.

Go fishing in the nearby mountain stream and drinking beer but don't stray too far as his mother would shoot you if he were to seriously hurt himself. Sell what he produces for 10 times what he is paid the next day.

That's what beating cedar is.

hoppy · Post by **hoppy** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:38 am

Mow lawns

Shovel snow

odd jobs

Window washer

dish washer

construction helper

farm laborer

grocery stocker

Post by **spot** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:22 am

I recall going door to door with a whitening stone and some lead blacking, both of which I got from the rag and bone cart. I hope there's still alleys in Lancashire where they're recognized and sufficient urchins trained in their use. Things have never been the same in this country since they scrapped the workhouses. Clearing ashes and laying coal on rolled-up newspaper to get kettle boiled before the rest of the household came down wasn't a job, it was what children did back then, but whitening a stoop properly took skill.

Two and thruppence an hour I used to get in the school holidays feeding dirty crockery onto industrial canteen conveyors and trolleying round tables. By heck it were mind-numbingly tedious.

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:39 pm

Please elaborate Spot.

I recall going door to door with a whitening stone and some lead blacking,

Post by **spot** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:58 pm

Scrat;1386382 wrote: Please elaborate Spot.

Can it be there are parts of the Western world which have already forgotten the whitening stone and the lead blacking? Has it come to this?

The stoop, or more properly though disused the "stoep" from the Dutch, is the threshold. From prehistory into my lifetime the stoep was cleaned every week by rubbing it with a flat stone, what in the navy would have been a holystone, and in my part of the world consisted of an amalgam of chalk and sandstone so that the chalk component would, over the weeks and months and years, leave a pure white finish.

Lead blacking was a soft stick which, rubbed onto the metal of a grate or range, left a heat-tolerant matt-black finish.

Very few of the housewives in my neighbourhood would permit me to black the range, though I was let loose on the grates. I was rarely allowed to be seen on the stoeps either, the housewives being both house-proud and at the same time aware of the shocked looks they'd get if their cohort saw a child employed to do work which by rights belonged elsewhere. There was something of a religious rite about maintaining the stoep each week, just as there was about boiling up the washer and mangling the laundry.

AnneBoleyn · Post by **AnneBoleyn** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:00 pm

spot:

Can it be there are parts of the Western world which have already forgotten the whitening stone and the lead blacking? Has it come to this?
How old are you anyway?

Post by **spot** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:04 pm

Old enough to raise eyebrows on occasion.

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:57 pm

Did this special stone polish the fangs of the local stray Smilodon gracilis also Spot? :sneaky:

I know of the ships holystone and my mother had a very old cast iron stove that she kept black and neat looking with something that looked like a big crayon. She hardly used the stove though for cooking, usually for heat in the winter. I so loved thawing out and roasting next to that stove. Pure bliss.

It looked like this.

http://www.elmirastoveworks.com/fireview.aspx

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:57 pm

When I was around 10 years old my Father came home one night and told us that his pal was looking for some 'beaters' and was a chance for us to earn some good pocket money.

My brother and I were all for earning some money until we found out exactly what a 'beater' did.

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:39 am

oscar might be impressed to know that I helped tend to standard bread race horses as a child...

I also delivered papers...

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:30 am

spot;1386344 wrote:

Two and thruppence an hour I used to get in the school holidays feeding dirty crockery onto industrial canteen conveyors and trolleying round tables..

That much ?

You was worth a lot.

Post by **spot** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:46 pm

Bruv;1386489 wrote: That much ?

You was worth a lot.
Inflation's taken its toll. If you increase that at the same rate petrol's gone up it'd be worth £3.60 an hour now, which is a 3200% difference[1] and explains why the old got poor very quickly back then if they didn't have an index-linked pension because you can be certain the Post Office wasn't offering interest like that on savings accounts. If there'd been a minimum wage back then I'd have been below it but not by much, just like the £3.60 equivalent isn't far short of the teenager £5 minimum hourly rate today.

[1] Some commodities have gone up at different rates. Beer's up 5500% over the same period, for example.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:49 pm

K.Snyder;1386484 wrote: oscar might be impressed to know that I helped tend to standard bread race horses as a child...

I also delivered papers...
I am Impressed. You lucky so and so.

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:55 pm

K.Snyder;1386484 wrote: oscar might be impressed to know that I helped tend to standard bread race horses as a child...

I also delivered papers...

I was an entrepreneur car cleaner, going door to door cleaning cars.

I used to dip bread soldiers into my dippy egg when I was a kid.......before the salmonella scare.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:07 pm

My Dad wouldn't let me work, he wanted me to concentrate on my studies. When I was fifteen I persuaded him to let me do two weeks of work as a chambermaid, covering my mate whilst she went on holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing and was asked to stay on as well as my mate when she got back from her hols. Dad took a bit of convincing but he let me in the end bless him. I think he was a bit protective of me :wah:

The next job was as a YTS in an old peoples home, I was meant to be a carer but in reality I was nothing but a glorified cleaner. I wouldn't have minded but the home already employed a dozen 'cleaners', we weren't allowed to actually spend time with the residents and I became very disillusioned with the whole set up. I walked away in disgust after two months.

Luckily I landed a job in the fishing industry, smelly business but good money and good fun most of the time. That job was the first contact I had with computers and the 'mobile' phone, it wasn't very mobile and it didn't work that well :wah:

Stayed there until I was around twenty then moved to a farm supplies business. Pay was terrible but the work mates were fun and I enjoyed being in charge of all the Isles of Scilly customers, processing their orders and making sure the deliveries made it on to the boat, helicopter or aeroplane. The paperwork was a nightmare though, anyone would think we were exporting goods three thousand miles :wah:

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:40 pm

My Father was a Rover car dealer and along with the showroom he had a large garage that employed about 8 mechanics full time. He also had coaches. There was always a variety of ways we could earn money from our Father. Cleaning cars and coaches, cleaning the offices, answering the phones. Manning the petrol pumps. It was great fun as I remember and we were rewarded well.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:46 pm

Nearly forgot.... Helping with the preparation of wedding cars Dad had and polishing the hearse for funerals.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:52 pm

Oscar reminded me of another way I earned money from Dad. He was mechanic by trade and in the evenings and weekends he repaired friends and neighbours cars for cash. The cash he earned from the jobs went towards our holiday funds but he rewarded me with cash for helping him out. There were only four cars on our street back then, now I live next door to someone with three vehicles and two motorbikes for one household :wah:

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:56 pm

Betty Boop;1386553 wrote: Oscar reminded me of another way I earned money from Dad. He was mechanic by trade and in the evenings and weekends he repaired friends and neighbours cars for cash. The cash he earned from the jobs went towards our holiday funds but he rewarded me with cash for helping him out. There were only four cars on our street back then, now I live next door to someone with three vehicles and two motorbikes for one household :wah:

The best part of manning the petrol pumps was that Dad gave green shield stamps with fuel In those days. Many didn't want the stamps so we got them... perk of the job.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:30 pm

Frightening to think, there were so many. I don't think there was a holiday I didn't work from fourteen until I left Uni and started working full time.

The ones I remember are :-

office lad in the electrical department

car washer

bricky's labourer

picker in a shoe warehouse

"assistant manager" in a supermarket

postman (every Christmas)

loading lorries at the shoe warehouse (most summers)

checking pools at Zetters

hydraulic press operator (totally mind numbing)

Post by **spot** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:34 pm

Bryn Mawr;1386823 wrote: hydraulic press operator (totally mind numbing)I'd forgotten a couple, not surprisingly. There's office blocks in London which stand or fall on the accuracy of some compressive strength tests I ran on the clay beneath their foundations while subject to Radio 1 for the entire working day. For all I know you may even work in one.

I ran a Pantone colour checking spray booth for a paint maker too, I think.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 4:58 pm

Were things that bad for you all?

Well I grew up with child labour laws preventing anyone to work without parent consent up to the age of 15. So first job was Macdonalds. But we did other things until then within my family unit. My parents were protective.

I think these days you'd be hard pressed to find any child allowed to deliver papers in the larger towns and cities.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:00 pm

Actually just having a think . I know why my dad didn't want mum or us girls working. It reflected badly on him. Dad was brought up in an era and a social set that it meant he wasn't providing properly for his family to have us work.

HHHmmmmmm interesting.

Post by **LarsMac** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 7:32 pm

weeding Tobacco field

Harvesting Tobacco

Milking cows

Newspaper delivery.

Brat-sitter. Minding siblings and the brats next door while Mom and friend went partying.

Stock boy for Grants department Store.

Produce clerk at grocer

Newspaper Delivery (This time in a car.)

Street newspaper vendor.

Construction labor

Navy Aviation Electrician

My wife says I have yet to reach adulthood, but I shan't bore you with all the rest.

Post by **spot** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:57 am

fuzzywuzzy;1386842 wrote: I think these days you'd be hard pressed to find any child allowed to deliver papers in the larger towns and cities.
Blimey. There's few places in Bristol that can't ask to be put on the morning round, and few rounds that aren't made by teenage schoolchildren.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:21 am

It's all done by drivers and wrapped in bloody glad wrap these days ...in the small town down the road there's a couple of boys who do a small run but that's it. And the money isn't worth it.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:26 am

fuzzywuzzy;1386863 wrote: It's all done by drivers and wrapped in bloody glad wrap these days ...in the small town down the road there's a couple of boys who do a small run but that's it. And the money isn't worth it.

I have a paper boy.... just wish he'd remember to shut the bloody gate.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:32 am

wow he comes onto your property? they arent allowed to in town ..(not allowed to approach houses ..them's the rules.) So you get it chucked a the house instead.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:35 am

See? if we weren't such a lot of potential child molesters and our kids budding burglars we'd have a delivery like yours.

but thems the breaks I guess .:yh_rotfl

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:16 am

Bruv;1386539 wrote: I was an entrepreneur car cleaner, going door to door cleaning cars.

I used to dip bread soldiers into my dippy egg when I was a kid.......before the salmonella scare.So salmonella depopularized the dippy egg?

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:46 am

K.Snyder;1386894 wrote: So salmonella depopularized the dippy egg?

It ended the career of the politician (Edwina Currie) who raised the issue.

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:15 am

K.Snyder;1386484 wrote: oscar might be impressed to know that I helped tend to standard bread race horses as a child...

K.Snyder;1386894 wrote: So salmonella depopularized the dippy egg?

Not only dippy eggs.......many types of egg products.....then when the news caught up after the farmers slaughtered the non earning laying hens.....every body relaxed.

The eggs had to be cooked thoroughly and it could possibly only be harmful to the elderly and young, if not.

I never altered my egg habit.

Another big health scare.......another one will be along in a minute.

My bread in dippy egg was a reference to your Bread Horses.

Now you have confounded me by using another obscure word an amalgam type word with an aberrant zee, depopularized ?

Even my American spell checker flags it up.

You do know I am only teasing Kevin ?

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:28 pm

Bruv;1386900 wrote: My bread in dippy egg was a reference to your Bread Horses.

Now you have confounded me by using another obscure word an amalgam type word with an aberrant zee, depopularized ?

Even my American spell checker flags it up.

You do know I am only teasing Kevin ?Yes, and I'd never have used the word if I hadn't wished to be a bit dippy sometimes

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 5:09 pm

Bryn Mawr;1386897 wrote: It ended the career of the politician (Edwina Currie) who raised the issue."Most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella," she told reporters.

Ministry of Agriculture ministers are reported to be extremely "angry" at her comments.

A spokesman said more than 30 million eggs were consumed every day last year.

'Highly irresponsible'

This is compared to 26 outbreaks of salmonella reported during that time. BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 1988: Egg industry fury over salmonella claim

She should have chosen her words more carefully...

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 5:11 pm

K.Snyder;1386922 wrote: BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 1988: Egg industry fury over salmonella claim

She should have chosen her words more carefully...

But her words were subsequently proven to be entirely correct.

WonderWendy3 · Post by **WonderWendy3** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:46 pm

I helped around the house, laundry, dishes, picking veggies from the garden....Dad paid me one cent for each cherry tomato and I would clean and count every single one!

We didn't get an allowance, but if I wanted something...Mom and Dad were fair to let us have things as long as it didn't break their bank account of course.

I worked my first paying job the summer I was about 14 or 15 as a clerk typist where my mom worked-A fabric testing company.

Second job next summer -guess I was 16 because I was driving....grocery store, and worked there until graduation of high school

Third job was another grocery store in Virginia after graduation when my parents moved and I followed along....of course.

Fourth job was at a sign company as a secretary/receptionist at about 17-18

Fifth job was working for Continental Airlines as a Reservation Agent....wish I never quit that job now of course....ugh! (age 19)

My 17 year old son doesn't have his first job yet, he has applied to many places but the economy even is tough for people that want entry level positions....I'm looking for full time employment as well...ugh.

koan · Post by **koan** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:28 am

I don't think of my childhood jobs as desperate family problems, though a lot of men have been pressured to believe that their job is to make sure no one else "has" to work. I think of it as proper preparation for a life of knowing how to work and provide for yourself. My only shock in this regard was in finding out that women are, in fact, not treated equal in the workplace. I was so pissed off when I found out that was missing from my education.

Then I got all women's rights.

Then I realised that the major women's rights groups hated men.

Then I stopped caring about gender and concentrated more on product.

Then I was told I was really aggressive and they like it... even though it scares the crap out of them.

Then I don't know because it's still the future.

Either way, you can't control anything but your fear demands you tell yourself you're in control.

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:26 am

koan;1386941 wrote:

Then I was told I was really aggressive and they like it... even though it scares the crap out of them.

Then I don't know because it's still the future.

Either way, you can't control anything but your fear demands you tell yourself you're in control.

You THINK far too much young lady

K.Snyder · Post by **K.Snyder** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:24 am

K.Snyder;1386922 wrote: BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 1988: Egg industry fury over salmonella claim

She should have chosen her words more carefully...Bryn Mawr;1386923 wrote: But her words were subsequently proven to be entirely correct.Here's a summary of the incident if anyone is interested to read further Are British eggs now safe to eat?

British eggs do have salmonella. But very few. The latest FSA study, in 2003, found salmonella in 0.3 per cent of UK eggs. There was no difference between battery, free-range or organic eggs. Salmonella is almost always killed in cooking. Even then, a fit person may fight off an infection. Alas, the British egg industry was not always so healthy.

Although Ms Currie undoubtedly exaggerated the degree of salmonella in British egg production, the industry did have a problem and was giving too many people food poisoning. Farms tried to clean up but the real breakthrough came in 1998 when the vaccination of hens for salmonella was introduced at farms backing the new British Lion mark. All the big egg producers put the marks on their eggs. From 1998 there have been falls almost every year in the number of human cases of Salmonella enteritidis. In 1997, there were 22,254 cases. In 2005, there were 6,677. Yesterday a spokesman for the British Egg Information Service said: "British eggs are about as safe as you can eat." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 24625.html

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:47 am

K.Snyder;1386959 wrote: Here's a summary of the incident if anyone is interested to read further

Are British eggs now safe to eat?

British eggs do have salmonella. But very few. The latest FSA study, in 2003, found salmonella in 0.3 per cent of UK eggs. There was no difference between battery, free-range or organic eggs. Salmonella is almost always killed in cooking. Even then, a fit person may fight off an infection. Alas, the British egg industry was not always so healthy.

Although Ms Currie undoubtedly exaggerated the degree of salmonella in British egg production, the industry did have a problem and was giving too many people food poisoning. Farms tried to clean up but the real breakthrough came in 1998 when the vaccination of hens for salmonella was introduced at farms backing the new British Lion mark. All the big egg producers put the marks on their eggs. From 1998 there have been falls almost every year in the number of human cases of Salmonella enteritidis. In 1997, there were 22,254 cases. In 2005, there were 6,677. Yesterday a spokesman for the British Egg Information Service said: "British eggs are about as safe as you can eat."

The Big Question: Was Edwina Currie right about salmonella in eggs, after all? - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

But Edwina Currie made her statement in 1988, way before the breakthough in 1998, and the rates of salmonella in 2003 are therefore irrelevant. The rates in 1988 were as high as she claimed and her statements were later proven to be correct.

Post by **spot** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:22 am

At the time of her statement it's fair to say the majority of British eggs had a detectable Salmonella count, the only question back then was how high the count could go before an infected egg became a probable health hazard at the dining table. Adequate cooking killed the bacteria but lots of recipes use raw egg.