Washing fresh eggs or not ?

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Aapomp831 said:
Keep them on the counter and wash right before use... cold water only; warm water can make the “pores” constrict and draw in bacteria. After 2 weeks we put any unused eggs in the fridge (still dirty / in the carton so they don’t contaminate anything) and they stay good up to 2 to 3 months. We have been doing this for 3 years and we have never gotten sick, nor have any of our regular customers.
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You have this backwards and obviously that can be dangerous. Cold things contract, warm things expand, law of physics. When you wash an egg under cold water, the inside contracts, pulling in air from outside the egg and potentially bacteria with it. ALWAYS wash eggs in WARM water.

OP, wash your eggs right before storage if you want to keep them in the fridge. Wash your eggs just before using if you want to keep them on the counter. This is mostly a personal choice. Lots of evidence says they last longer in the fridge but if you're eating them fast enough nobody cares.
 
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ChocolateMouse said:
You have this backwards and obviously that can be dangerous. Cold things contract, warm things expand, law of physics. When you wash an egg under cold water, the inside contracts, pulling in air from outside the egg and potentially bacteria with it. ALWAYS wash eggs in WARM water.

OP, wash your eggs right before storage if you want to keep them in the fridge. Wash your eggs just before using if you want to keep them on the counter. This is mostly a personal choice. Lots of evidence says the last longer in the fridge but if you're eating them fast enough nobody cares.
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Soaked in cold water I would have to agree, but a light rinse of cool water to get the nasty off the shell, IMO, isn't long enough time to cool the whole egg from ambient temp for this process you explained to occur , correct? :confused:
 
416bigbore said:
Soaked in cold water I would have to agree, but a light rinse of cool water to get the nasty off the shell, IMO, isn't long enough time to cool the whole egg from ambient temp for this process you explained to occur , correct? :confused:
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While a light rinse real quick probably doesn't make a difference on a small scale like one household, on a larger scale it can... If only 1 in 1000 gets sick that's still 42,000 sick people on this website alone. There's also a CDC monitored consistent spike in salmonella cases nationally directly correlated to back yard chicken keeping. Good hygiene matters, especially if you like a runny yolk like me.

https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/smallscale-egg-handling-1

"Eggs should be washed in water that is at least 20°F warmer than the warmest eggs, and the water should be at least 90°F. This is to prevent water that is cooler than the egg from forcing the egg contents to contract and pull water and microbes through the shell into the egg and cause contamination. However, the wash water should not be more than 40°F above the temperature of the eggs or the eggs may experience thermal cracking...

...Eggs are rinsed to remove adhering dirt, detergents, and foam (Zeidler, 2002). Rinse water should be a few degrees higher than the wash water to prevent drawing the water into the egg. "
 
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If you really thought that water temperature didn't make a difference then why did YOU say "cold water only; warm water can make the “pores” constrict and draw in bacteria. "? ;)

I didn't say this.
 
416bigbore said:
I didn't say this.
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Whoops. That's my bad. I'm sorry, I thought you were the other poster. :T I will delete that.

But I do think even a light rinse CAN be effected by the temperature. Even if it's rare, on a larger scale it becomes a problem. So I would suggest using warm water whenever you can. I just let the hot water from my tap run for a moment before washing.
 
If the goal of washing is to remove bacteria, a light rinse with cold water will be pretty much useless, unless you’re using an actual egg wash and following the directions from the manufacturer... and as far as I know, none of them call for cold water. :)

personally, it depends on the egg, when it comes to where I store it. The eggs from my one duck hen are always spotless. She chooses a clean nesting site and doesn’t roll them through the muck. The other hen took delight in camouflaging her eggs with as much grime as possible. Obviously, I didn’t want to leave filthy eggs sitting out on my counter as a bacterial playground. Any poopy/dirty eggs, I wash in warmer-than-the-egg water with soap, and scrub them because I’m not trying to preserve/protect the bloom, they’re going in the fridge. I would probably invest in commercial egg wash if I was planning on selling them on a larger scale than just to family and friends. Eggs that aren’t visibly dirty go on the counter until I want to use them, then they get the warmer-than-egg wash and dried, then cracked and used.

Personal preference on whether you want to refrigerate your eggs or not, but the general consensus is that they should be washed before going into the fridge, due to the pores shrinking and possibly pulling in bacteria as previously mentioned.

common sense is that cold water is not a good choice for removing bacteria while washing if at all possible, although it is warranted in some cases. (Like presoaking to remove blood stains haha). Also, look at residues in other industries with improper washing protocols. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way I’d be using cold water while washing calf bottles! The scum that gets left behind even with soap, ugh... haha.
 
416bigbore said:
O-wow that's amazing, do you float test them before cracking them open?
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The egg's sold at the store are months old, floating them doesn't necessarily mean a spoiled egg, just a egg that's lost its moisture. if you can feel that the weight is in one location, toss it out. it may not be bad, but it's not much good at this point.
I use the shake test, if the swishes around after I give it a few vigorous shakes, I throw it into the ditch across the road.
 

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