Susan Reid, post author

April 23, 2018 at 10:51am

Hi, Linda. We have taken the temperature of the meringue after adding the sugar syrup, and it gets above 161°F (the high end of the danger zone) to between 163°F and 168°F. Bacteria are killed at 160°F. Royal icing is a different story: bacteria needs water to reproduce, and sugar is hygroscopic, attracting the water in the recipe to form a crystalline structure. Once royal icing dries, there's no water in the icing environment to allow bacteria to reproduce. That said, meringue powder takes any risk from raw egg whites out of the equation. Hope this helps. Susan
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