Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 82 posts

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#71

Post by mcv »

thomholwerda wrote: post #20

I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have never seen anyone not fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is. Interestingly, the 'official' D…

I've never seen a Dutch supermarket keep eggs refridgerated, and putting them in the fridge at home seems like a custom from a distant past. I know that when I was young, fridges did have a little egg tray, but I don't know anyone who keeps their eggs in the fridge nowadays.

And it's better for the egg not to. You can use it right away if you don't keep it refridgerated. A cold egg behaves different in cooking (though I forgot the details), so you have to take it out of the fridge 10 minutes before you use it.

To me, the clincher is that supermarkets don't store their eggs in the fridge. If refridgeration was important, supermarkets would be required to do that. Also, despite refridgerating their eggs, the US seems to have a lot of salmonella cases.

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#72

Post by mcv »

ryanjshaw wrote: post #50
thomholwerda wrote: post #20

I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have never seen anyone not fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is. Interestingly, the 'official' D…

At the supermarkets in South Africa they're not refrigerated. So I buy these unrefrigerated eggs and bring them home to put them into the fridge, because that's how I was raised The problem is my fridge can only hold about a dozen eggs but I buy them in trays of 48. The ones that can't fit have to fend for themselves outside in the cupboard. I eat eggs from the fridge, and bring reinforcements in from the cupboard to…

If you put some in the fridge and some not, I'd definitely start eating the ones not in the fridge first, and slowly move the ones in the fridge out of the fridge well before you use them. They're better to cook with if they're at room temperature.

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#73

Post by mcv »

mrweasel wrote: post #66
rmrfrmrf wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could you possibly know that

The Danish poultry farmers have been working extremely hard to eradicate salmonella. They do have some small insentive though. If you can prove that your countries chicks do not have salmonella, then the EU allows you to ban import chicks from countries that cannot make the same guarantees. This frees Danish poultry farmers from competing with German or eastern European farmers. The same laws applies to eggs, so thro…

> If you can prove that your countries chicks do not have salmonella, then the EU allows you to ban import chicks from countries that cannot make the same guarantees. This frees Danish poultry farmers from competing with German or eastern European farmers. The same laws applies to eggs, so throwing huge investments into figthing salmonella pays of in the long run.

That is a very clever, possibly even devious, way of fighting salmonella. Shield the ones who do it right from competitions by the ones who do it wrong. Maybe we should do that in more industries to get everybody to step up their game.

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#75

Post by mcv »

It would be nice if the article included a comparison of the number of instances of salmonella food poisoning with one system versus the other system.

You can describe and argue why one method might be better than the other, but nothing beats hard numbers.

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#76

Post by DanBC »

equoid wrote: post #60

The headline obscures the real point of the article. In the UK we don't need to refrigerate our eggs at the point of production (or spray them with chemicals) because our chickens and eggs are much healthier due to superior and more sanitory production methods than those prevalent in the USA. And so eggs are almost always sold at room temperature and usually refrigerated at home. And, as others have noted, the UK is…

UK chicken product at sale: about 5% salmonella and about 50% campylobacter.

http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/campsalmsurvey...

That doesn't feel particularly low risk to me.

UK chickens are not clean, which is why there are strict laws for commercial handling of raw meats and a lot of advice for domestic handling of raw meat, especially chicken.

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#78

Post by [deleted] »

buf wrote: post #38

Unfortunately all the comments erupted into an argument as to the definition of Europe. I live in London, and guess what, London happens to be in Europe. Therefore the English are European. The article is written for a US audience, and does not need to distinguish every European country, but they still did: "It seems that different egg storage conditions come down to the different ways that eggs are farmed and proces…

[deleted]

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#79

Post by will_work4tears »

ryanjshaw wrote: post #50
thomholwerda wrote: post #20

I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have never seen anyone not fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is. Interestingly, the 'official' D…

At the supermarkets in South Africa they're not refrigerated. So I buy these unrefrigerated eggs and bring them home to put them into the fridge, because that's how I was raised The problem is my fridge can only hold about a dozen eggs but I buy them in trays of 48. The ones that can't fit have to fend for themselves outside in the cupboard. I eat eggs from the fridge, and bring reinforcements in from the cupboard to…

It's best to keep the eggs in the carton they came in anyway[0]. Do refrigerators there still come with those silly egg "holders?"

[0]-http://eggs.ab.ca/recipes-tips/handling-storage

Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs

#80

Post by SixSigma »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #54
thomholwerda wrote: post #20

I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have never seen anyone not fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is. Interestingly, the 'official' D…

I am English. It never even occured to me that people would put eggs in the fridge.

What did you think the egg holder in the fridge was for ?
Post reply on HN