Mineral oil for coating washed eggs...

[galanie]

You can get mineral oil at the drug store. And it's cheap, and food grade.

 

[pcooley]

I live along the eastern seaboard and sell eggs at a local farmer's market. Most of my customers are boaters/sailers and friends heading to the Carribean for the winter. Several have said that there is a short supply of eggs on several of the islands and have to stock up on their way there. They usually by 10 to 20 DOZEN eggs at a time for the trip. Obviously, there is no way for them to refrigerate the eggs, so a great majority of them use petroleum jelly which seals the eggs and preserves their integrity for at least 6 months or longer unrefrigerated. They prefer to wash their unrefrigerated eggs themselves and coat the eggs, or I wash the eggs for them in a very, very mild bleach solution and deliver the eggs immediately then they preserve the eggs themselves with petroleum jelly. The say the eggs are left greasy, using the petroleum jelly, but they wash them on the boat before use. Of course, they report, 100% of the eggs dont make it so they always crack the eggs separately before cooking.

I have the same customers year after year, and have asked about mineral oil on the eggs. They report that the mineral oil works well and is what they do at home to preserve the eggs for shorter periods. I prefer to wash all of my eggs and coat them with mineral oil by hand. It absorbs into the pores of the shell but does not pass the membrane lining of the interior. I have been selling eggs for 5 years now and have found that the majority of my customers prefer their eggs to be washed and coated with mineral oil. Some even display their eggs on the countertop (personally I do not recommend this because of food safety.....blah blah blah). Some have said that they do not like the idea of an unwashed egg going into their refrigerator with their fresh vegetables because even though it has the bloom on it and has no macroscopic soiling, you have to think which end of the chicken the egg came from and their may be microscopic soiling.

Preserving the integrity of eggs using either petroleum jelly or mineral oil, comes from a time before refrigeration on the family farm to store excess eggs for winter or when the chickens were not laying (I asked my 91 year old grandmother). Grandma has no signs of the affects of using the petroleum jelly or mineral oil for all of those years (even as a laxative), but who knows, when she turns 100 it might come back to bite her in the butt.

 

[ChickFilet]

There are different grades of mineral oil. Food grade is used for food preservation. Store bought eggs often are sprayed well before hitting the store shelves. You have to make sure its FOOD GRADE and not the stuff you buy in the drug store. That isn't safe.

 

[redstarfather]

On the egg carton store they have a category for egg cleaning products. they have egg wipes,cleanser,detergent,etc. hope this helps

 

[cotekim]

The ingredients of the Manna Pro Wipe N' Wash eggs wipes for sale at Tractor Supply Co.:

"Water, non-ionic surfactants derived from corn, palm and coconut oils, water conditioner, preservative - less than 0.2%"

I looked up what a "non-ionic surfactant" is. It's basically alcohol. Water conditioner is some stuff I can't pronounce - salts and glycerin mostly. And "preservative"... I don't know, table salt maybe???

I'm not sure I believe that rinsing my eggs with tap water is any more damaging to the natural coating of an egg than a mixture of alcohol, water conditioner and salt would be. Plus, the instructions on the product say to rinse the egg with water before and after using the wipes, so what's the difference?

I'm sure preserving the natural flora of the egg shell is really important if you're trying to hatch them, but I'm just trying not to eat poop, you know?

Mineral oil is found in the laxative section of the drug store. I know that because I just bought some to oil some beautiful wooden spoons I just got recently. The instructions specifically said to use mineral oil because it wouldn't go rancid like cooking oils would. Before I read that I would have happily used olive oil or something. I guess that's one of the benefits of using a petroleum product. As much as I would prefer to use something plant-based rather than a fossil fuel, there's no denying that is one of the benefits of mineral oil. It does not go rancid. Now it begs the question, will mineral oil-coated eggs give you a mild laxative effect? Who knows, but I believe @pcooley 's 91 year old grandmother when she says it works to preserve eggs.

 

[LAPoppy]

http://www.steoil.com/crystal-plus-food-grade-white-mineral-oil This from the company website about food-grade mineral oil. For eggs, you use the thinnest viscosity, the 70 grade. The FDA has standards for food-grade mineral oil, and it is not classified as a carcinogen.