Hard-boiling of eggs effectively kills any Salmonella present but cooking eggs to a medium or soft boil presents a risk for salmonellosis. found no influence of egg size on time needed to inactivate Salmonella during boiling of eggs, although they did determine that eggs taken directly from refrigeration (6 C) required a longer cooking time than did eggs that had been held at room temperature (approximately 22 C). After inoculating the yolk of intact shell eggs with Salmonella, allowed the pathogen to grow within the egg to a level of approximately 7 log CFU before evaluating cooking methods for inactivating the Salmonella. When inoculated eggs were placed in boiling water and allowed to boil for 1 min Salmonella was reduced to 1.4 log CFU/ml. Three minutes in boiling water decreased Salmonella below the detection limit (1.0 log CFU/ml) and provided a visibly solid yolk. When eggs were placed in room temperature (approximately 21 C) water which was subsequently brought to a boil, Salmonella was reduced below the detection limit after boiling for 1 min and yolks became solid. Vegetable oil was preheated in a frying pan and contaminated eggs were fried for 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 min; Salmonella was reduced approximately 2.75 log CFU/ml at all times tested and there was no significant difference in reduction between cooking times. Although a visibly solid yolk has often been used to indicate safe cooking of eggs, it should be noted that the egg fried for 2.5 min and with a completely solid yolk still had greater than 2.0 log CFU/ml of detectable Salmonella.