Photo taken yesterday (2025-02-08) at a supermarket in Kyoto, Japan.
Alt text: A picture of the eggs section in a Japanese supermarket. There’s a 10-pack of eggs going for 215 Japanese Yen, which is about 1.42 US dollars.
Photo taken yesterday (2025-02-08) at a supermarket in Kyoto, Japan.
Alt text: A picture of the eggs section in a Japanese supermarket. There’s a 10-pack of eggs going for 215 Japanese Yen, which is about 1.42 US dollars.
I was convinced Japan also washed their eggs. I’m confused.
Also I’m curious about why Americans are really squeamish about people eating any egg products that haven’t been fully sterilized by cooking, while others generally aren’t scared of it, even if they’re in a country that washes eggs just like the US.
In the US, people don’t even taste their cake batter to check the amount of sugar before cooking it; in Canada, a summer isn’t whole until you’ve made strawberry mousse (ingredients: strawberries, egg whites, sugar; eaten raw). Perplexing. Is it riskier in the US, or is the risk equally low everywhere but Americans are really paranoid?
It’s just two different strategies for avoiding salmonella. The US method has worked very well for a very long time. So much so that other countries did adopt it, at least for a time, but it requires an infrastructure that can keep the eggs refrigerated through from processing to consumer, which isn’t trivial.
When they wash the eggs they strip off the protective barrier that keeps pathogens out. Thats why they need to refrigerate them. If your hens are living and laying in fetid squalor then this must be done.
The protective barrier is true, but you’re either making assumptions about the rest or you’ve been misinformed. There really aren’t major issues in any of the developed countries today, but the washing and refrigeration is still the safest with the longest shelf life. It isn’t the condition the chickens are kept in - there are countries where it’s much, much worse than in the US - it’s just that chickens very easily carry salmonella.
Many years ago, more countries washed, but there were some escapes, especially one from Australia with the eggs exported to the UK, and it got a bad name, so some countries dropped it, but the US figured out how to make it work consistently. Most countries require chickens to be vaccinated, but the US hasn’t needed to because of the washing and refrigeration.
Lots of good info online. Here’s a USDA article on it, and here’s a higher level NPR piece.
The USDA’s website says that eggs are “washed and refrigerated in Canada, Japan, and Scandinavia”, but that’s a lie regarding Scandinavia in any case (I’m an egg enthusiast btw)… so I wouldn’t be surprised they’re lying about Japan as well.
Btw I took a look at your comment and if it helps, washed eggs are good basically forever too. I never throw them away. I’ve eaten eggs that had been expired for 6 months, and while they were a little dried up (kinda dense; the white had shrunk), they were otherwise totally fine.
You know how they say you know there’s a methane or propane leak because of the smell of rotten eggs… I’ve never smelled rotten eggs. Only propane. Eggs refuse to rot.
That probably wouldn’t pass the float test though, right? I wouldn’t risk it after that long, but I’m glad you didn’t get sick.
Probably not. They contained a lot of air at that point. But yeah … If it doesn’t look, taste or smell rotten, I’m usually not worried by food.
But then again, I’m vegetarian, so I avoid most non-obvious risks by that alone.
Japan also washes them. Just not all.
Americans are really, REALLY paranoid
About all the wrong things
My eggs better not be dirty! My eggs are too expensive! I need to buy GUNS! …He may be a felon but at least he’s not a brown woman.
No - the US and Europe developed two different methods for handling salmonella.
Starting in the 1970s, the US chose to wash the eggs. The upside is that it eliminates virtually all risk. The downside is that it requires refrigeration throughout the entire supply line, but since they are refrigerated, US eggs last a lot longer; unrefrigerated eggs last about three weeks while refrigerated eggs last about 50 days.
Large portions of Europe didn’t have the infrastructure to support this so the regulators instead chose to vaccinate the chickens. The upside is that no extra steps are required and no extra equipment like refrigerated trucks. The downside is that they don’t last as long.
Both methods work about equally well and are both considered acceptable.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/why-the-u-s-chills-its-eggs-and-most-of-the-world-doesnt
https://tellus.ars.usda.gov/stories/articles/how-we-store-our-eggs-and-why
Who in America doesn’t eat cake batter‽ I always heard not to but never got sick so I never listened. Also our fat asses love raw cookie dough.
IDK where in the US you are but I don’t know anyone who is squeamish about raw egg.
You are actually significantly more likely to get cross contamination from an unwashed shell than from a properly stored washed egg.
I’m not American, but in a lot of American cooking videos I watch, the host will go like “NEVER eat raw egg” or “I’m tasting a small amount here but it’s a calculated risk I’m taking and you may not want to”.
US here, I grew up in a township, part rural part suburban, on a farm and this was not a concern for most people out there but all my friends and their families from the suburban side were squeamish. I think it comes down to repeated misinformation reinforcing a fear.
It’s not misinformation. You shouldn’t really eat raw eggs from a commercial setting in the US. Tge chickens are kept in depolarble conditions that encourage disease and bactetia. Eggs from a small farm may as well be from a whole different world.
What I’m trying to say is that I think those people I grew up with maybe had a misconception that the risk was much higher than it actually was. We maybe should normalize pet chickens for small properties. Daily fresh eggs are so good and chickens are adorably goofy animals.