h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tried posting this question but obviously it was in such a wrong place. I wonder if this is the right place..?

This has been bugging me for YEARS...

Can anyone explain why eggs suddenly need more carefull storage once they have undergone retail purchase?

To explain:
When I was young my grandparents kept hens and these produced wonderful eggs. My grandparents also did not have a fridge.
I learnt that if eggs are too cold they don't cook well. So you have to have them come up to room temperature before opening. I used to store eggs in a wooden bowl in the kitchen - they look nice that way
Then I was told this is just not good enough and that I would make myself sick. I must store them in the fridge...

So why do stores (shops to me) never seem to do this? The eggs seem fine without refrigeration while they are on the "ambient" shelf at the supermarket. Yet on the box it says "keep refrigerated" so when you get them home, they have to be put in the fridge!

Chickens don't have fridges - do they?

Just - Why..?

Can anyone help?

Discuss.

hhmm.. not sure i can help a whole lot...
but ok. chickens dont need fridges becasue they dont eat the eggs, thats how baby chickens are made, but i suspect you allready knew that.
and i dont know where you live but here in canada eggs are refrigerated. ok, the fridges dont have doors, and they're open.. but its fairly cold anyways.
so its not after retail purchace....

but maybe eggs can stand to be out for a certain amount of time and then it gets dangerous... so maybe the store just orders a certain amount everyday and sells it all i've no idea actually....

Yes but that is because you live in a sensible country - where they refridgerate the eggs in the store... That makes sense of the product storage advice label.

My grand-mother used to keep hens (chickens to you I suspect ) and she didn't have a fridge... If she had thought you were going to put eggs from her flock in a fridge! Well, I think you would be black listed - All those years ago it was a no-no!

Anyway, the point is that you are supposed to keep them cool so as not to get food poisoning. my old granny would have said - keep your hens better, so they are healthy...

Healthy hens lay tasty eggs!

hmm..
dont know what to tell you... i dont know much about eggs....

Jam Jars tell you to keep their contents (aka PRESERVE) in the fridge these days. They're just covering their arses in the current litigous climate.

My guess is that along with stuffing factory chickens full of weird sh*t, they also now want eggs to last longer and so it's not like you are getting eggs from your Granny's yard (i.e. real and fresh).

I keep my eggs in the firdge mainly because I have more room there than on the bench. But I always keep half a dozen out of the fridge for when I need to use them.

Also in the past people had *safes* to keep their perishables in - it's not like things were always kept at room temperature.

and if your grans kitchen was anything like the kitchens I knew when growing up then due to the lack of central heating and the like, it was often bl**dy cold in there so you didn;t actually need a fridge!

well..... somewhere, recently i heard that there has only recently been a problem with our eggs. so our grandparents didnt have to worry about it...

There is nothing recent with the problems with eggs and chickens.

When I first left school in 1961 I went to work in a butchers shop where we sold eggs and poultry. I was constantly being reminded of the problems of salmonella in eggs and poultry. Poultry was kept well clear of other meats like lamb and pork to prevent cross contamination.

As for keeping eggs in fridges, it will just stop them going bad a little longer. In the days when eggs were taken from the chicken and eaten in the same day, that wasn't a problem. If an egg does go bad you don't need a laboratory analysis to tell you. Refrigerating eggs wont do anything for salmonella.

Donald

hmm....
interesting. i didnt know that....

thanks donald

I never refrigerate my eggs.I just get on and eat them BEFORE the sell by date.If one boils eggs after refrigeration the shells crack.

When I saw the title of this thread I honestly thought it was a *Caine Mutiny* question....

I also come from Canada and we don't need refrigerators. When the chickens lay the eggs they usually freeze before they hit the nest, which is a good thing because a frozen nest would break an unfrozen egg. Lemme tell ya about how tough our chickens are.....

Seriously, I think the biggest concern is what's on the shell. If you wash the eggs with a good natural antibacterial like oil of oregano or something else from your healthfood store you might find that eggs last a lot longer (even outside of the 'fridge). Give it a try!

Oh.. I went away for such a long time!

Thanks for all your interesting comments pepes (and other creatures)

It's the inconsitency I still (two more years on...) can't stand. If it says "keep refridgerated" on the box, why isn't the box in the fridge in the shop?

I have a lot of other questions about life in this odd world (except Canada)

I would move to Canada, they seem very sensible there and yet silly too! What about the neighbours though? I don't think they'd have me anyway!

Canada is pretty good
At my grocery storewe do keep the eggs in the fridge type thingy. Though its one of those open fridge things...

The answer could be storage time. A box of eggs probably stays on a shelf in the shop for a short space of time - maybe not even a day. When someone buys a box of eggs though, it might sit in their house for a week or more before the eggs are all used.