I ran out of meringue powder, so made a batch of "Simple by design's" RI and was looking up how long it would keep in the fridge.

But according to the "Baking 91*1" website the RI made with raw egg whites can't be consumed at all I thought it was fine if you used it within a few days?! I make salad dressing with raw eggs all the time, keep it up to 4 or 5 days and have never been poisoned or sick from it. The RI is in little dots all over my cake and it will be consumed. But I only made it a few days ago! I"m worried now ... and I feel really stupid if this is the case.

Honestly, if you are comfortable eating wonderful homemade salad dressings and runny egg yolks (as am I! ) then don't give your cake a moment's worry.

People are afraid of their own shadows these days!!

The thinking behind that is the risk of salmonella. I grew up having royal icing made from egg whites and never gave it a second thought about eating it. Use pasteurized egg whites.

Thanks! You have eased my worries...my childrens' daycare staff are eating it right now and I don't want to poison them. Yes, I agree...people are afraid of their own shadows these days.... I'll pick up some pasteurized egg whites to have on hand.

I made the RI 3 days ago and I want to use a little on another cake - I"m assuming that should be okay?

I went to google and the only thing that said don't eat it was for pregnant women.

Depends on where you are sourcing your eggs from - here in Australia, commercial eggs are salmonella free, so much less risk.

I can't quote your laws or rules or even recommendations over there BUT I do know that royal icing presents very little danger - it has virtually no liquid once dry and bacteria (of all sorts) need a moist environment to grow.
I know they are always coming up with NEW data and new dangers and I do not think we should ignore them BUT think of this......

People have been using royal icing on cakes/cookies etc for over 100 years before the introduction of Actiwhite/meringue powder and I don't think people were dropping dead or getting ill. The ruling here is more in place for things like mayonnaise (largest food poisoning on record here in Australia last year was traced to mayonnaise using raw eggs and NOT refrigerated or stored correctly)

The risk is to the very young, the elderly and the immuno-suppressed

I found powdered egg whites at my local store. You mix them with water to reconstitute it. Since I have smaller kids eating the things I put RI on, I feel secure knowing they won't get sick! The powdered whites are expensive, but the container lasts a long time and it is a great investment!