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Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?
- ljoshua 10y agoAh ha! I had always wondered why we'd buy a crate of 24 eggs at Carrefour in France when I lived there for two years, just off the grocery floor. I didn't feel bad not refrigerating them there, but of course must do so again now. Satisfying answer.
- paglia_s 10y agoI live in Italy and most supermarkets only have refrigerated eggs with Carrefour being the notable exception and I found it weird when I first saw eggs outside the refrigerator
- M_Grey 10y agoThe thing is, salmonella is most prevalent on the outside of the shell, and that cleaning does save some lives (and misery). Meanwhile you can let your egg come to room temp if you prefer, before use. Finally, if you really want fresh eggs, you can raise them or hook up with a local farmer. Even in a big city, you can raise chickens for eggs.
- spatulon 10y agoThe article doesn't mention it, but the majority of egg-laying hens in the UK are vaccinated against salmonella. It's mandatory for eggs sold with the 'Lion' quality mark, and these make up 85% of the market.
- Havoc 10y ago>that cleaning does save some lives (and misery). Does it? I'd imagine if it really did the Europeans would switch to the refrigerated approach asap.
- M_Grey 10y agoEurope has traditionally (as a whole) been a lot laxer with regulations. The upside is that they avoid a lot of red tape. The downside is... Thalidomide.
- Havoc 10y ago>Europe has traditionally (as a whole) been a lot laxer with regulations. Quite the opposite. I mean they even tried to regulate how bent bananas could be. Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2257/94
- M_Grey 10y agoBullshit. Bananas have always been classified by quality and size for international trade. Because the standards, set by individual governments and the industry, were confusing, the European Commission was asked to draw up new rules. Commission regulation 2257/94 decreed that bananas in general should be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature”. Those sold as “extra class” must be perfect, “class 1” can have “slight defects of shape” and “class 2” can have full-scale “defects of shape”. Nothing is banned under the regulation, which sets grading rules requested by industry to make sure importers – including UK wholesalers and supermarkets – know exactly what they will be getting when they order a box of bananas. Leave that Brexiteer crap at the door please.
- Houshalter 10y agoWould it be possible to sterilize the eggs without destroying the cuticle? Like with heat, radiation, or ultraviolet light?
- bbotond 10y agoI think it is done with UV light here in Europe.
- 21 10y agoUnless after sterilization you would also seal them in plastic or something, they will become "non-sterile" again. Pasteurized milk is sealed.
- nraynaud 10y agoyou might just want to kill one strain of bacterium that live in the soil and around hens, not actual complete sterilization.
- martin-adams 10y agoNot explicitly mentioned, but is linked from the article: In Europe, the understanding is that this mandate actually encourages good husbandry on farms. It’s in the farmers’ best interests then to produce to cleanest eggs possible, as no one is going to buy their eggs if they’re dirty [1] So in Europe, you need a clean environment as you're not allowed to wash the eggs. I find this equally compelling than not wanting to wash the protective cuticle off that protects against bacteria. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/10/25/why-american-eggs-would-be-illegal-in-a-british-supermarket-and-vice-versa/#58478d01a53e http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/10/25/why-ame...
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoAnother important point is that, as the OP mentions briefly, eggs are porous. Potentially, if there's some horrible bacteria, it could have already seeped into the egg and washing won't help so much. So you want the egg clean anyway.
- DanBC 10y agoIt doesn't seem to be working in the UK. Over half of all the fresh chicken sold is contaminated with campylobacter.
- Drumlin 10y agoPresumably chickens that are bred for meat live a different existence to those reared for eggs?
- beejiu 10y agoThat should be no problem if cooked problem. The real problem was that 5% of wrapped chickens contained campylobacter on the outside of packaging, which would immediately contaminate any other items in your shopping.
- cjg_ 10y agoI've bought eggs that clearly have been marked as washed in Sweden (and this producer says they wash all eggs, http://www.kronagg.se/vaara-produkter/tvaettade-aegg/ http://www.kronagg.se/vaara-produkter/tvaettade-aegg/). It seems it is legal to wash them but you need an approved facility for it as it can contaminate the eggs.
- Yuioup 10y agoBecause it gets 100+ degrees in the summer?
- jonknee 10y agoIronically, not in the US because we also love air conditioning.
- the_mitsuhiko 10y agoWhile the rules on eggs are the same the culture is not. In Austria most stores sell eggs refrigerated where as in the UK they so not.
- tiefenb 10y agomhm, only Hofer doesn't chill them. And sometimes Spar with eggs from local farmers.
- INTPenis 10y agoI'm a swede and I had no idea, I've refrigerated eggs as long as I can remember. My parents are from Croatia though so it's kind of weird that I picked up this habit. My relatives in Croatia do not refrigerate eggs. Most swedes that I can think of refrigerate their eggs straight from the store. The recommendation is printed on the box to refrigerate. Now that I've read this article it suddenly makes sense why I've sometimes seen dirt (maybe poo?) and feathers on store bought eggs.
- tomca32 10y agoHmm..weird. I'm from Croatia and I would be surprised to see people not refrigerate eggs. We (me and my family) always refrigerated them. Every fridge I've seen has egg holders that we would fill up. Pretty sure that most people I know refrigerate eggs, but then again, I never really paid attention to that.
- INTPenis 10y agoWell my relatives are from the country, they have their own chickens. But yeah, like you say, even in Croatia most refrigerators are sold with egg holders.
- csydas 10y agoIm a us expat living in Russia; eggs are sold nkn refrigerated but virtually everyone's home I've been to stores eggs in the refrigerator. The only time I haven't seen it was rural houses. I've known about this factoid for some time after reading an article om NPR about it, and I guess I always just assumed it was cultural assimilation happening. That is, we see people in US tv and movies do it, so we do it. I didn't know there was a difference in preparation prior to the article and most don't seem to either. So instead we just do what everyone else does.
- mercer 10y agoI notice quite a mix of behavior, even in just my own. Usually I refrigerate my eggs simply because they stay good for longer that way. But when I don't have much space, or when I know I'll be eating the eggs relatively soon, I'll leave them out. I've seen other do the same.
- DanBC 10y agoThere's a similar thread (for a different article) with 78 comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8029882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8029882
- RandomOpinion 10y agoI think part of the article that's getting glossed over is: "A refrigerated egg, no matter the source, will be good for four or five weeks. Unrefrigerated eggs are best used within a week, though they may be fine for two." So, one would want to refrigerate eggs (washed or unwashed) anyway if they're not all going to be used immediately.
- ricardobeat 10y agoOr just not buy them if they are not going to be used immediately. Eggs quickly lose their quality (try poaching a week-old or refrigerated egg). I understand this may be unrealistic for car-dependant US households that have no option but to shop in large batches...
- paulddraper 10y agoI think it's the non-car dependent folks that (good or bad) have "no option". I far prefer shopping for two or three weeks at a time, refrigerating fruits, vegetables, and milk.
- sampo 10y ago> I think it's the non-car dependent folks that (good or bad) have "no option". In cities people typically have a grocery store within 5 to 10 minutes walk from home.
- iak8god 10y ago> In cities people typically have a grocery store within 5 to 10 minutes walk from home. That really depends on the city, and on which part of the city one lives in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert Because I can afford to do so, I choose to live in a nice walkable neighborhood where I do have a grocery store within walking distance, but this is absolutely not the case in most poor urban neighborhoods, including many areas of my city.
- Kenji 10y agoI love how, once again, the states are clueless, forcing companies to wash the eggs on one continent, and forcing them not to on the other continent. Another useless law, hampering the production of vital goods.
- TenOhms 10y agoWhat do you base that observation on? The article doesn't address whether washing + refrigeration is safer than leaving the membrane in-tact and not refrigerating. In fact, it hints at the exact opposite, saying Japan adopted the US method after a major salmonella outbreak. Who's right, or more importantly, does this even matter?
- nraynaud 10y agoI feels crappy not to have an absolute answer.
- mikekchar 10y agoI did not read the article as I got fed up with playing the "chase the close box in this overlay" game. However, most egg vendors in Japan neither wash, nor refrigerate eggs. The main exception I can think of are the eggs at the convenience store. In my town, they even have vending machines for eggs that the local farmer fills up every 2 or 3 days. They are unrefrigerated and the eggs sit happily there are 35 degrees C in the summer.
- monochromatic 10y agoThat's not at all what I got from the article. I read it as saying basically that reasonable people can disagree about whether eggs should be washed and refrigerated, and there are good reasons for either position.
- nraynaud 10y agoI would agree, I'm still puzzled tho, because vaccine works but is not used for economic reasons. So we Europeans, mostly don't vaccinate and don't refrigerate (let's forget the health care and say it's the cheapest), but in the US you're paying for an entire cold shipping infrastructure anyways, which doesn't strike me as "cheap".
- pmontra 10y agoItaly here and I've always refrigerated eggs. I didn't even think about it: fresh food goes into the fridge bu default.
- nemetroid 10y agoIn Swedish egg farms, if salmonella is discovered (in a mandatory screening), the entire flock must be killed off. This provides a good incentive to avoid salmonella outbreaks. The state reimburses up to 50% of the costs incurred (up to 70% if the farm is part of the additional voluntary salmonella screening program).
- johnsmith21006 10y agoSame reason as the peanut butter jar because far easier to find. But did have to explain to wife when we married.
- pasbesoin 10y agoIf you have "natural" peanut butter (ground peanuts and a bit of salt), refrigerating after stirring the separated oil back in helps to keep it from separating out, again. It also makes it a bit less "oozy" when spreading it on bread. For those of use who like a thicker helping of PB with our J, another plus. :-)
- placebo 10y agoin Israel every egg carton has a stamp stating an expiry date if refrigerated and an expiry date if not.
- gremlinsinc 10y agoamerica here, we used to own chickens -- the rule my wife told me is if it's fresh--it can sit for 1-2 months without putting in fridge, if it's store bought it must be refrigerated because of the cuticle. -- Though not sure on store-bought but un-washed eggs, since there's obviously handling and processing between farm and home it could obviously shorten the life span.
- dbg31415 10y agoFood goes in the fridge. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Keeps your life uncluttered and tidy.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- albertgao 10y agoI live in China. Shouldn't keep the eggs in the refrigerator a common sense?......
- toephu2 10y agoSometimes common sense is not so common (hence the article).
- jwong_ 10y agoIn my city eggs are sold unrefrigerated in a bag or in a huge pile for you to pick from. This is in a grocery store. The wet markets sell them similarly, though I have been to them a lot less.
- liuyanghejerry 10y agoSame here. I think most of the Chinese keep eggs in refrigerator.
- adultSwim 10y agoWhy are so many headlines needlessly in the form of a question?
- teilo 10y agoWe get our eggs from local farmers who raise chickens in old fashioned coops. In addition to tasting much richer without having to pay for "organic" eggs (because they get to run around and eat bugs), they keep longer as well. We don't bother refrigerating them either.
- aplomb 10y agoRaised chickens for some time. Noticed my eggs would "sweat" when I'd take them out of the refrigerator vs store bought which do nothing at all; after a time at room temperature they'd reabsorb. I'd imagine that's pretty dangerous if you're running a cesspool operation - pulling in liquid contaminated by whatever is on the shell.
- mastazi 10y agoPlease excuse me if my question is dumb, I've never been to the US so I might just be uninformed... I've noticed in movies and shows that eggs in the US usually have a white shell, whereas in other countries (at least the ones I have lived in, i.e. Europe, SE Asia and Australia) they are usually of a colour that I would describe as beige/light-brown. is that because of the washing process described in the article, or is it just because of the hen's breed?
- hornetblack 10y agoI've heard that they remove the surface of the shell as well.
- hueving 10y agoI believe the breed. You can still get brown eggs in the US as well and they are refrigerated just like the white ones.
- nly 10y agoYou can buy both in the UK, but light brown are most common. It's nothing to do with washing, it's just a cultural preference... like streaky (American) vs back bacon. And the only reason eggs arent refrigerated in supermarkets is because... well, they're only in the store for a few days tops. I personally keep mine in the fridge.
- djrogers 10y agoThe color of eggs and type of bacon are horrible analogs - the color of your eggs has zero bearing on their flavor, whereas anyone who'd choose back bacon over proper bacon is just a monster.
- edgartaor 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_as_food#Color_of_eggshell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_as_food#Color_of_eggshell
- BurningFrog 10y agoWe have brown eggs here in California at least, but most are white.
- URSpider94 10y agoA friend with chickens sent me this article a long time ago: http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/how-to-store-fresh-eggs-zmaz77ndzgoe http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/how-to-store-fresh-... Summary: unwashed eggs are edible for up to eight weeks on the counter, and can go much longer than that if refrigerated. Washed eggs go bad more quickly, but should still be ok for a couple of months. The hard part is, you really have no way to know how long it's been since a store-bought egg was laid.
- CM30 10y agoWait, this is seen as an American thing? Because I'm from the UK, and most people I know here store boxes of eggs in the fridge. That's how we've done it for decades, and that seems to be the 'norm' where I live. Certainly never seen any eggs laid out in a bowl on a table or worktop. Maybe it's a regional thing here? Edit: Just checked online a bit. Seems like it's a matter of individual opinion here, based on this Guardian thread: https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-26086,00.html https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-26... The Daily Mail run a 'study' about it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2421530/So-eggs-fridge-Scientists-crack-age-old-argument-chilled-room-temperature-best.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2421530/So-eggs-frid... And there's a Yahoo News UK article saying not to: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/never-put-eggs-in-the-fridge--a-dozen-food-myths-that-could-cost-you.html https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/never-put-eggs-in-the-frid... Certainly doesn't seem like a unanimous difference between countries.
- stordoff 10y agoThey may be kept in the fridge at home, but I don't recall ever seeing them refrigerated in a shop
- macca321 10y agoWhat an individual does in their own home is their own business, no matter how depraved.
- zhte415 10y agoAlso from UK (London) and have never met anyone who stores eggs in a fridge. Perhaps we're both outliers?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- m-i-l 10y agoAccording to the BBC article "Ketchup debate: To chill or not to chill..." [0] from a few days ago, the NHS advice states eggs are "best stored in the fridge as they will be kept at a constant temperature". [0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38907451 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38907451
- Jgrubb 10y agoMy wife bought our chickens mainly on how pretty the basket of eggs would be on the counter. This is this weeks haul that we didn't eat - https://imgur.com/a/T9x4K https://imgur.com/a/T9x4K. If you have the room, I highly recommend them as pets. They're quite cool and very low maintenance, and they make the best eggs you've ever had.
- Cyph0n 10y agoYep, agreed. My uncle has >10 chickens back home. They live in the countryside, and chickens are excellent at "taking care of" dangerous insects. The eggs are amazing too, so it's a win-win.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoMy parents considered it, but heard that they attract snakes. Also, what do you do with the eggs you don't eat?
- Jgrubb 10y agoWe've been mostly at a balance of production/demand and only occasionally given them away to friends. Now that the days are getting longer and the "new flock" that we got last spring is hitting maturity we're going to have to start putting more effort into giving them away or start selling them. It's common to see a cooler at the end of the driveway with fresh eggs for sale in the area I live. re: snakes - not so far, and the other comment about them keeping potentially dangerous insects (ticks) in check is right on. Hawks and foxes are more the concern as predators around here, we've lost a few to foxes in the last two years.
- daurnimator 10y agoif anything they attract foxes. I've never heard of having a non-transient issue with snakes.
- mod 10y agoI keep chickens and can confirm that we have repeat blacksnake visitations. Not that I mind black snakes, but I don't like them stealing eggs. Relocating them off on a distant part of my 40 acres doesn't keep them from coming back.
- microcolonel 10y agoInteresting; explains why my Chinese friend has a habit of leaving the eggs out on the counter after taking them out of the fridge. Thought she was just absent-minded. Seems like it would be fine for them to blow them off with air, and irradiate them. Then if there's some crap stuck to them you at least won't be getting salmonella.
- pmoriarty 10y agoChicken feces can be infected with salmonella. So if that gets in to your food...
- microcolonel 10y agoThat's why I said irradiate them, please read comments before getting so up in arms.
- ycmbntrthrwaway 10y agoThe article should be titled "Why Do Americans Wash Their Eggs?"
- kalleboo 10y agoOther countries that wash their eggs include Australia, Sweden and Japan
- empressplay 10y ago... but up until recently, Australia did _not_ refrigerate the eggs in grocery stores! (yuk!)
- aaron695 10y agoI refrigerate my eggs because I keep them for months sometimes before eating.
- glibgil 10y agoI refrigerate everything. Cold makes everything last longer
- polimux 10y agoI (Europe/Germany) put them in the fridge because the fridge came with an egg tray. Simple as that, never thought about leaving them outside. Maybe that's a simple answer to why many people put them in the fridge, independent of 'how long they will stay good'.
- ralfd 10y agoEveryone I know in Germany puts them in the fridge. Though I just realized, that the supermarkets/stores sell the eggs uncooled.
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoSame in Norway, except the supermarkets sell the eggs cooled as well.
- kwhitefoot 10y agoMy fridge came with a removable egg tray which I immediately removed so as to have more space for stuff that actually needs to be cold. Also I have never seen a fridge with an egg tray big enough for a weeks worth of eggs for a family of five so what's the point in having it.
- yourapostasy 10y agoIf this interested you, then you might also be interested in water glass, or sodium silicate [1]. It is still used today by some sailboat crews to keep fresh eggs on board without refrigeration for up to five months, without resorting to powdered eggs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate#Food_preservation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate#Food_preservat...
- ivanhoe 10y agoThis differs between Europe countries, in ex-Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, etc.) eggs are not washed, but we also usually keep them refrigerated.
- brokenmasonjars 10y agoWhenever I buy eggs from the store I refrigerate them. My chickens and ducks however I don't bother with. Eggs don't last long around my house, have a few labradors who I feed a home cooked diet in which eggs are a daily item. I think the washing/not washing discussion is interesting. It really highlights a difference in food approaches between the US and EU. One of the things that really annoys me about the US is the raw milk stuff. I live in PA so I can get raw milk pretty easily; live a mile from a raw milk farm that's been in business since 1840 or something. This farm has a good track record, some others don't. I remember in Mike Pollan's Netflix's documentary series the part about the cheese nun and the FDA. The FDA individual simply stated that in France the practices are much more rigorous than the US. Why can't we develop a system that allows raw milk from farmers who follow similar procedures? Why can I still not buy raw milk cheese under so many days old directly from France? The ban probably angers me more than anything since I'm really big into cheese and raw milk cheese from France tastes better than pasteurized stuff. Raw milk itself I'm content with since I get it from the farm nearby. It's what I grew up on, whenever I have milk from other sources the differences are night and day. The differences in food approaches is interesting.. and really shows how far the US has gone off track. Not to mention the damn ban on tonka beans.
- drakonka 10y agoI live in Sweden and we've kept our eggs unrefrigerated in our home. However, we recently sponsored a chicken and now get to buy more ethically obtained (in my opinion) eggs from a small local farm in batches that might last a month or so. The farm owner recommended that we refrigerate the eggs, I suspect because we are not using them as quickly as you would otherwise go through a carton of eggs from the supermarket. I'm also not sure what period of time the eggs are collected over, so they could very well already be a week old by the time we receive them. So now we refrigerate to be safe.
- pvaldes 10y agoProbably because rats, racoons, opposums, dogs, skunks, snakes, etc love to trace and steal eggs.
- amelius 10y agoA related question is: how do you optimally store boiled eggs? (And how long can you keep them?)
- tiefenb 10y agoIn Austria (AUSTRIA -> EUROPE, NOT AUSTRALIA ;-] ) most of the eggs are chilled and people chill them also. I see very rarely some eggs not in the supermarket fridge and asked myself at this moment: how they prevent the eggs from decay
- Traubenfuchs 10y agoI have never seen anyone NOT put them in the fridge. The same goes for my time in France and England. This article is "America vs the rest of the world" clickbait. At least the headline is clickbait. The part about washing and the "protective cuticle" was interesting.
- RugnirViking 10y agoLiving in the UK here. Never heard of such a crazy idea as putting bread/eggs in the fridge. I don't entirely think this discussion is without merit
- Fej 10y agoSciShow did a great little video on this. https://youtu.be/LJwO5SdGcLk https://youtu.be/LJwO5SdGcLk
- hogrammer 10y agoBirds have one hole for everything. Washing the eggs isn't a terrible idea.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- balabaster 10y agoAs someone who raises chickens for eggs on our hobby farm and have done much research surrounding this, having been raised in the U.K. and now living in Canada I have the following info: In North America, I cannot speak to the quality of the conditions in which the eggs are laid, but they are washed. The Health Department requires that washed eggs be refrigerated due to the removal of the cuticle or "bloom". In the supermarket, eggs are refrigerated accordingly and they should be refrigerated at home too. In the U.K. the eggs don't undergo any process that removes the cuticle and thus they're not refrigerated in the supermarket and thus don't need to be refrigerated at home. When I pick the eggs from our free as in "can come and go as they please" chickens in the morning, some of the eggs I have been stepped all over by careless chickens with dirty feet and thus I like to wash those eggs and they can either then be dipped in mineral oil to mitigate the need for immediate refrigeration or as I frequently do, I put them in the fridge after I wash them. If the eggs are clean, I don't wash them and leave them on the counter where I treat them as good for 2-3 weeks without a second thought. Of course, if I were selling these eggs, which sometimes I do, it's usually less of a ball ache my explaining why they don't need refrigeration than it is just to wash them and tell people just to keep them in the fridge as normal - unless they want the whole "farm fresh organic treated like wild chickens" experience, in which case I tell them to keep them on the counter in a little wicker hay lined basket for that farmhouse vibe... and eat them up within a week... because that way they'll buy more.
- 32h8 10y agoScishow already covered it
- BrandoElFollito 10y agoFrench here : eggs are usually sold refrigerated (Leclerc, Auchan - but not my SuperU for instance) and I keep them in the fridge, like everyone I know (and have seen manipulating eggs)