Is it safe to eat on cookies? Im asking because I was just on a site and they gave two RI recipes, one said UNSAFE RI dont eat and it was made with egg whites.
I would say it is unsafe to eat royal icing made with egg whites. I would use merengue powder instead.
Everything I've read about royal icing recommends using meringue powder or pasteurized egg whites. I would say meringue powder is your best best.
There is also a product that is in the dairy section of the grocery store by the egg beaters which is just whites. These egg whites have been pasteurized, so no problem with bacteria. I use them all the time for Italian Meringue and anything calling for egg whites, two ounces equals one egg white or three ounces equals one whole egg.
The carton says not to freeze but I do and I can't see any problem. I also used them to make divinity.
Salmonella occurrences are VERY rare, however I still won't use raw egg whites in my icing. I don't want to be that 1 in 20,000 who offers up toxic cake to people. There are definitely options: I use pasteurized egg whites (I actually use the Trader Joe's scramblers) and yes, they freeze fine...also there is a powdered egg white, think it's called "All Whites" which works - all the benefits of meringue powder but w/o the extra ingredients. I tried this in a taste test of IMBC at home. I did 3 batches: All Whites, pasteurized, and raw (normal). Raw was best by a small margin; All Whites and pasteurized were nearly identical. Oh also I recently saw an ad (and subsequently saw in the supermarket) a new PASTEURIZED RAW EGG. Pasteurized in the shell! What will they think of next. Costs about $4 a dozen though!
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