I’ve recently posed this question to Safeway and haven’t received a response yet so I thought I’d pose it here amongst the dopers.
Why are consumers instructed to quickly refrigerate eggs, keep them in the back of the fridge for freshness, etc., yet I notice that the dairy case that they’re kept in is noticeably warmer than say, the milk or the cookie doughs?
Anybody from a store have a factual answer for me or must I wait ever-so-impatiently for a response from Safeway?
Here in Bogota, Colombia, eggs are displayed in the store without any refrigeration. We buy them and store them in our refrigerator. Never have had any problems.
Lots of recipes work better with eggs at 70 degrees F. And from what I heard from an egg farmer, the eggs aren’t refrigerated at the farm, where they sit at room temperature until they are picked up (and they’re picked up weekly).
Eggs probably last longer if refrigerated, and with the usual paranoia about salmonella, authorities probably insist you keep them cold. But they can be kept at room temperature for a few days, at least.
Growing up across the street from a farm in New Jersey, we never refrigerated the (candled) eggs we bought from our neighbor.
We also didn’t wash them, per his instructions. Apparently there is a coating on the eggs that gets washed off when sent to grocery stores. (I just did a search and see that it is called bloom or cuticle, never knew that.)
My mother just stored the farm fresh eggs in the pantry in a tupperware container. They usually stayed fresh for a couple of months. We always opened our eggs in a separate bowl when cooking or baking though, since every now and then we would get a stink bomb. We did buy eggs at the grocery store as well, and those were always stored in the refrigerator.
Same here in Panama. Actually, I believe that in most places in the world eggs are not routinely refrigerated in markets. It’s really not necessary - they will keep well for long periods.
I’ve been to an egg farm (it was a hellhole by the way- I’ve switched to free range fgor life) and the eggs were kept in a refrigerated room. That could’ve been because of government regulations, though. Brits don’t tend to keep eggs in the fridge, but most of their fridges are tiny and the eggs are in packs of six. On the other hand, if an American family buys a dozen (among their other groceries) they may not finish them for a few weeks, so refrigeration would probably be safer.
Also, there’s the whole ass-covering element.
Checking for freshness: supposedly rotten eggs will float to the top of a bowl of water.
One of the reasons you should refrigerate store-bought eggs is because they are old when they get to you.
A very fresh egg has a high, round yolk and firm, gelatinous white. When you crack a newly-laid egg into a frying pan, the yolk rides high and the white doesn’t spread. As eggs age, the yolk gets flatter and the white becomes thinner and runnier. Crack your typical supermarket egg into a skillet and it rushes all over the bottom of the pan.
Fresh eggs do, indeed, last for months. The trouble is, they can be a month or more old before they even get to your local supermarket. That’s why they’re refrigerated there, and that’s why you have to keep them in your refrigerator when you get them home.
(That’s why I have a few laying hens in the back yard, too. There’s nothing like a truly fresh egg.)
People wash eggs now?