Here in EU eggs have printed on them the date they were laid, I never seen eggs in a supermarket more than a few days older.
Do you have a source on this? I'm having trouble finding anything that says refrigerating unwashed eggs has any effect other than simply helping them last longer.
Maybe the general wisdom refers to taking eggs from the fridge and storing them on the counter, rather than using them?
I can not provide a source off the top of my head, been a few years since I went through my egg curiosity phase. But it is a simple experiment, take an egg out of the fridge on a hot humid day, you will see water condense on them, and if you let it sit you will see that water absorb in, it will disappear faster than evaporation could explain. This will be easiest to see on a washed egg since the bloom on an unwashed egg helps some, but the bloom is never perfect and each time water condenses on the egg it damages the bloom.
Far from true everywhere, including in the UK which the article is about.
Here in Ireland, it would even be illegal to sell washed eggs in a supermarket.
I've heard the idea that it's temperature change which causes things to cross the barrier, and the fridge is the place in your kitchen with the most stable temperature.
Correct, but it is not temperature change in general, it is when that change is great enough to cause condensation. Everytime you take something out of the fridge it generally will cause water to condense on the surface because of that temperature change from cold fridge to warm kitchen, same reason you glass of cold water sweats on a hot summer day.
The conventional wisdom here probably changes with region (as conventional wisdom often does) since everywhere does not have the same climate. UK is a rather damp place so fridge is probably safer for much of the year. On reflection I did not think that part through completely, did not take into account everyone having a different local climate.
USA regulations have eggs externally washed and disinfected, and require they be kept at a low temperature for storage and transportation. The point of washing is to remove external salmonella contamination from the outside of the egg. The washing process removes some of the natural barrier from the egg and leaves it much more susceptible to bacteria penetrating through the shell and contaminating the egg, so they must be kept cool or refrigerated to help limit and slow the bacteria penetration process.
Eggs are not refrigerated in Europe and are still generally healthy to eat. In most of the EU washing eggs is actually illegal, because it removes the protective coat that helps prevent bacteria from entering eggs. To prevent salmonella there have been some vaccination campaigns where EU chickens are mass vaccinated against salmonella (which is not a requirement in the US). I think in the UK you must have vaccinated all your egg producing chickens to be certified, but other countries are less strict.
Refrigerating with or without the protective coat extends the shelf life.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC173326/
Unless the rules changed within the last six years, if a hen house returns a positive environmental Salmonella Enteritidis test and the farm is large enough they must undergo an egg break test to show that the eggs themselves are not infected with SE before they can be sold to consumers. If the egg test is positive the eggs can only be sold as some form of pasteurized egg product until testing shows negative.
Page 47 if you're bored. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2009-07-09/pdf/E9-161...
I can find these studies suggesting salmonella inhibits biotin in the gut[1], and this link suggesting a biotin deficiency can increase susceptibility to salmonella [2].
However one thing that can not be disputed is the reduction in choline intake from the egg yolk would have dumbed down the nation much like covid has dumbed down the world aka brain fog.
Maybe we need a law to sue political parties out of existence if they screw the nation.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4504957 [2] https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article-abstract/4...
Portion Down is the site of a UK military facility specialising in research into chemical and biological hazards.
/Brit
I usually store eggs outside a fridge. A pack of 18 eggs will last me about 3 weeks and I've not had one spoil yet.
In Europe eggs are sold unwashed and I can assure you there is nothing on them except for a white or brownish shell. Occasionally a down gets lost in the packaging - that's it. The shell gets permeable when the protective layers are removed by washing it and that's why eggs are sold refrigerated in the US. In Europe eggs are neither washed nor refrigerated.
Maybe they're getting a thorough wipe? That's about the only way I could imagine this happening, unless you have 24/7 surveillance to clean as soon as they poop and snatch up the eggs. Even then, both sometimes happen simultaneously.
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.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonella-in-eggs_controver...
Problem with not refrigerating eggs is that they start change after a few weeks, going bad is not the proper term, less fresh would be more apt, another few weeks and things start turning green (Dr Seuss did not invent those green eggs) and are still not bad in the sense of not being able to eat them but they are far from appetizing in anyway. Modern world requires eggs to last longer, could be 3 months before an egg hits the shelf at the grocery store, so we wash them and keep them refrigerated.
Salmonella is still on the shell of washed eggs, most comes off with the bloom (the coating on a fresh egg) but the bloom is not perfect. So we keep our washed eggs in the fridge to slow growth and store the eggs in a carton which can absorb anything which condenses on them when you take them out of the fridge.
The best by date on an egg carton mostly refers to raw consumption, moisture in the fridge and moisture that condenses on the shell when you take them out will slowly seep into the egg and carry the salmonella into the part we eat and where the salmonella can grow and multiply to dangerous levels for raw. If you have gone past the use by date you may want to skip those soft boiled or sunny side up eggs but they are fine for more firmly cooked eggs and probably fine for soft boiled and sunny side up unless you are well past the use by date.