Vote on the Scariest Food of 2010

From slimeburgers to oily oysters and salmonella-tainted eggs, 2010 kept dishing up yucky food news like a lunch lady gone postal. In case you’ve forgotten — put down that Four Loko, now! — we’ve rounded up the year’s 10 biggest scandals and travesties, including the very latest exposé from the Humane Society’s undercover investigators.

So tell us: Which of these were you most afraid to put in your mouth this year? Vote for the scariest — or click through the slideshow for explanations of our fears.

Eggs
This past August, half a billion eggs potentially tainted with salmonella invaded American kitchens. If you weren’t among the estimated 2,000 people who got sick, there was other stuff to scare you: check out what horrors the FDA found when it finally got around to inspecting those factories, and consider that the chick magnate behind the recall had already established himself as a “habitual violator” of environmental, labor, and animal-welfare good practices … and is still probably the largest U.S. producer of eggs.

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Update: The results are in:

What were you most afraid to put in your mouth this year?

• 20.9 percent — “Corn sugar”
• 19.5 percent — Hamburgers
• 16.1 percent — Genetically engineered salmon
• 10.3 percent — Smithfield pork
• 9.6 percent — Gulf seafood
• 8.1 percent — Alcoholic energy drinks
• 7.4 percent — School lunches
• 3.5 percent — Eggs
• 3 percent — Bluefin tuna
• 1.7 percent — Raw milk and cheese