The present invention relates to producing a safer shell egg through thermal treatment. The present invention provides methods of producing a shell egg wherein the albumen and the yolk of the shell egg receives a thermal treatment sufficient to pasteurize the shell egg and thereby combat the risk of salmonella. The present invention provides methods of providing thermal treatments to the shell egg through introduction of the shell egg into an aqueous solution of a predetermined temperature and maintaining the shell egg in the solution for a predetermined time sufficient to cause the required reduction in salmonella. The predetermined times and temperatures may be characterized by use of the equivalent point method of thermal evaluation, by use of the F₀ line for shell egg or by other methods of determining the reduction in salmonella.