4 ms·
They aren't washing them. More commercial operations might brush them with a dry brush (to remove dirt and chicken poop), while others are just collecting them
by bmelton 4y ago
They aren't washing them. More commercial operations might brush them with a dry brush (to remove dirt and chicken poop), while others are just collecting them more immediately, but it's illegal in Europe to wash eggs -- which is required by law in America. Washing eggs removes the bloom, which coats them and protects the permable egg from infection. The trade-off is that European eggs should be washed just before use.
In America, we mandate that eggs are washed in a chemical bath. This diminishes the bloom and replaces it with a chemical wash.
Both mechanisms are ostensibly intended to prevent Salmonella, but I don't have data on which is more effective.
- weinzierl 4y agoAs this piqued my interest I tried to find data but it is complicated mainly by the fact that vaccination rates are vastly different. If we go by raw, reported Salmonella cases the American approach seems to be significantly safer, but then again we seem not to have a good idea about the unreported cases. It probably doesn't help that it is a politically charged topic too - see "Eggwina" in the UK [1]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonella-in-eggs_controversy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonella-in-eggs_controver...