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Loading...How Clean Are Your Eggs?
- Eric Steinman
- April 13, 2012
- 1:00 pm
- 157 comments
Do you routinely wash your eggs before you break them and cook them? I certainly don’t, and that is why I was so baffled when, after visiting a local farm and walking away with a dozen fresh eggs, the farmer said, “you might want to rinse those off before using them.” Huh? I had never really thought to “rinse” my eggs, but I popped open the cardboard carton and saw 12 beautifully-shaped brown eggs with little flecks of hay and barnyard detritus on them. The farmer essentially said there was nothing on the eggs that would kill me, but hey, they have been sitting in a barn and among chickens, neither the brightest nor the cleanest animals on the farm. So, I did indeed rinse my eggs.
Granted most consumers get their eggs, not from the farm, but from the supermarket where they have been mechanically packed into Styrofoam cartons and seemingly rid of any semblance of farm life. But according to a report released by The Humane Society yesterday, which consisted of an undercover investigation into Kreider Farms, a major factory farm that produces 4.5 million eggs each day for supermarkets like ShopRite, those pristine white eggs fall far short of being clean – inside and out. In the investigation, as first reported by New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, The Humane Society uncovers fetid workplace conditions and numerous health code violations, in addition to multiple instances of extreme animal cruelty. Some of the filthy conditions uncovered include mice running down egg conveyer belts, barn floors thick with flies, manure and eggs testing positive for salmonella, and stifling levels of ammonia in the air.
It should be noted that last year (2011), the main egg industry trade association, United Egg Producers, in an unlikely union, joined forces with the Humane Society of the United States in an agreement to support new federal standards that would provide more space for hens and getting rid of those objectionable battery cages. However, Kreider Farms (the subject of the investigation) is conveniently not a member of the United Egg Producers, and therefore not bound to the new standards.
So even if you were to wash these conventional eggs with soap and water, then rinse in vinegar (which may help, but probably not) attaining that pure egg nutrition will be next to impossible.
Knowing what we all know about factory farms that maintain substandard conditions for hens and employees, have you sworn off conventional eggs? If you have gone local or organic, can you tell the difference? And lastly, does anyone else wash his or her eggs?
Read more: Animal Rights, Blogs, Diet & Nutrition, Following Food, Food, Nature & Wildlife, Raw, animal cruelty, chicken, eggs, factory farms, hen, Humane Society, United Egg Producers
Eric Steinman
Eric Steinman is a freelance writer based in Rhinebeck, NY. He regularly writes about food, music, art, architecture, and culture and is a regular contributor to Bon Appétit among other publications.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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157 comments
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", neither the brightest nor the cleanest animals on the farm. So, I did indeed rinse my eggs." get real writer these animals are SUFFERING for your BENEFIT!
I run my own free range hens but always give the shells a quick rinse/wipe over before using. Just something I've always done and not all my girls lay in the clean nesting boxes but like to find their own little places, in pots, hollows under tree trunks etc. So I just feel better knowing they are clean.
Never bother washing my eggs as the inside is protected by a natural bacteria "skin".
Cooking properly gets rid of the bacteria anyway.
Ate farm fresh eggs for years without washing and have not died yet.
Anyone worried about factory farm eggs containing antibiotics and what not can always find a reliable free range farm-although for some without transportation and otherwise that may not be easy depending on where one lives.
I switched to organic/free range chickens long ago for nutritional reasons. The free range chicken eggs have the correct ratio of omega-3 to omega- 6, whereas conventional eggs have 19 times more omega-6 than omega- 3.
For those of you who don't understand Omega-6, it is identified with Diabetes, Obesity and Cardiovascular disease as much a sugar and white processed flour. It is found in very high levels in almost all processed foods and is derived from cheap, common oils-soy oil, cottonseed oil,corn oil and of course Wesson which is a mixture of the cheapest oils available at the time of manufacturing.
i never washed conventional eggs i bought in the grocery store. i never realized i needed to wash eggs before a friend of mine who has chickens gave me some eggs. she said NOT washing the eggs made 'em last longer and to wash them before using them. that was the first i'd ever heard of washing eggs.
I wash off everything before eating it.
always wash
I never thought it was necessary to wash eggs before cracking them. Store bought eggs should be clean, however if bought from an individual raising chickens, I guess it would be good to wash them.
I always rinse eggs, whether from the store (organic free range) or a friend. We know where they popped out of, but, if store bought, they were touched by a lot of people and other stuff.
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