
Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs - Turukawa
http://www.businessinsider.com/should-you-refrigerate-eggs-2014-7
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octagonal
Oh look, it's another American who thinks Europe is a single cultural entity.

I'm European and I've never seen an unrefrigerated egg in my life.

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phpnode
Agreed, I'm European and I've never seen a refrigerated egg in my life.

~~~
michaelgrafl
I'm an Austrian living in Austria, and I used to put my eggs in the fridge.
Then I stopped doing that because my spouse thinks they absorb the smell of
the fridge and now I don't.

The store I usually buy my eggs from doesn't store them in a fridge. Other
stores do.

Most eggs I buy at the supermarket don't seem to be washed or sanitized.

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thomholwerda
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' Dutch storage advice for eggs [1] states they
are to be kept in the fridge, because it reduces the risk of salmonella and
makes sure they dry out less quickly.

[1]
[http://www.voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/eieren.aspx](http://www.voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/eieren.aspx)

~~~
ryanjshaw
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 replace the eaten ones.

This whole process strikes me as absurd (especially since I recall a chef at a
cooking class saying that it's preferable to cook things at room temperature)
but I do it anyway. Where do I fit in?

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will_work4tears
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](http://eggs.ab.ca/recipes-tips/handling-storage)

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zhte415
(Northern) China here.

Eggs sold unrefrigerated and unwashed. Almost exclusively refrigerated at
home. Eggs are invariably cooked thoroughly; the suggestion of a runny or even
moist yolk is traditionally met with confused looks and fears of food
poisoning.

Brooding of poultry is not permitted in most cities/towns/areas with
apartments, but considered normal in rural areas (places with gardens).

I understand the freshness / verifiability of freshness of a chicken egg is
easily determined by how easy it is to peel after being hard-boiled: thin,
hard to peel (i.e. without indenting the white) shell is a sign of a fresh
egg, thick and easy to peel shell indicates an older egg.

~~~
minikomi
Japan here. People refrigerate eggs, but often eat them raw over rice. In
summer, raw egg take away, is usually stopped. eg.
[http://www.yoshinoya.com/menu/sidemenu/index.html](http://www.yoshinoya.com/menu/sidemenu/index.html)
You can see it on the menu there as "Talk away ok" but underneath it says from
6/1 ～9/30 no take away.

~~~
zhte415
Interesting. When you say over rice, is the served rice hot enough to
partially cook it? I love a raw egg over Korean style 'banfan' where rice is
cooked in an iron bowl, and raw egg and beef / fish are mixed in at serving
time (at the table), together with salad style vegetables.

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minikomi
Nope, just a bowl of rice with a raw egg blobbed on top. Add some soy sauce
and there you go!

[http://m.youtube.com/results?q=卵かけごはん](http://m.youtube.com/results?q=卵かけごはん)

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fredsted
Britain ≠ Europe. In Denmark most supermarkets refrigerate eggs and some
don't.

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Svip
I do often see the notion that 'UK is Europe', particularly by American media;
and that if something is true in the UK, it's probably true in the rest of
Europe, so they often don't bother checking.

Because, sure, we all drive on the left.

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jiggy2011
Most of europe drives on the right, or was that the joke?

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Svip
That was the joke.

It's unfortunately, not uncommon for stories to describe something Europeans
do (when they really mean Britons), that I seldom can relate to, until I
realise they are only using the UK as a sample. Although, I should point out,
that sometimes it's other countries used as basis for what Europeans do (say
France or Germany), when it might be exclusive to either two countries (or a
subset of European countries, say Southern European).

I also notice this in release dates for video games,[0] often a UK release
date is published, when they really mean a European release date. (Although,
to be fair to Canada, I often see US release dates, when they mean North
American.)

[0] The same pattern isn't necessarily true for music, film and book releases,
because they don't have so wide releases as video games usually have.

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kitd
For some background, egg production briefly became a political football in the
UK in the 1980s. A government minister correctly but unwisely said that a
majority of eggs were infected with salmonella. She promptly lost her job, but
behind the scenes, egg production was transformed. So this subject has
probably been addressed here in the UK with much greater scrutiny than it may
have been elsewhere.

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BozeWolf
I knew this already, but when I heard this I was amazed about the eggs being
washed in the US. I heard this at a factory which creates egg-sorting-machines
(If you want to see awesome egg handling machines: check this [1].)

For the US they created a special module to wash the eggs. In the Netherlands
(where I live) this is unheard off. Even at moba they where like WTF :)

Another fun fact is: our eggs are stored outside the fridge in the stores, but
in many house holds the eggs are stored in the refrigerator. Most
refrigerators have those plastic containers for eggs. Same goes for cheese.
Cheese shops store the cheese outside the refrigerator, a lot of households
put it in the refrigerator again.

What also strikes me, is the fact that in big parts of europe, having so many
chickens on a m2 is not allowed anymore. Instead of laying houses we have
free-range systems. It's quite funny technology (like washing eggs) has to
solve a problem which didn't exist if we respected nature just a bit more.

[1][https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=moba+egg](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=moba+egg)

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warbastard
In the UK I believe a good amount of people do keep eggs in the fridge when
they get them home from the supermarket. Like yours, our fridges have the
plastic containers for eggs.

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rodgerd
Similar in New Zealand: refrigerated at home, not in the supermarket.

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perlgeek
In Germany, I haven't seen any refrigerated eggs in supermarkets. But they do
have two dates, one after which they should be refrigerated, and one "best
before" date. (And like in the UK, they aren't washed).

So it seems that refrigeration isn't necessary for the first two weeks or so
of an egg's life time, at least if not washed.

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szatkus
I usually check them in water[1] rather than look at "best before" date.

[1] [http://www.tammileetips.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/Good-...](http://www.tammileetips.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/Good-ok-Bad-Egg.jpg)

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sandGorgon
The outside temperature in India is roughly double that of any European
country. India - the fifth largest producer of eggs in the world doesnt use
refrigeration because... well, there is none.

And inspite of all that, there is very little spoilage - nature designed them
well.

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buf
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 processed in the U.S. compared to the U.K. and
other European nations.

Read more: [http://www.businessinsider.com/should-you-refrigerate-
eggs-2...](http://www.businessinsider.com/should-you-refrigerate-
eggs-2014-7#ixzz37QjP5YiS")

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zidar
As for the eggs, I don't remember ever seeing unrefrigerated eggs in Slovenia,
Italy, Bosnia, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Germany and France, but I
haven't been in the UK yet.

And markets in Slovenia must have eggs refrigerated.

Translated from [http://www.uradni-
list.si/1/content?id=45033](http://www.uradni-list.si/1/content?id=45033)
"Eggs must be cooled under 5C, except during transportation when they can be
at more than 5C, but no more than 24 hours."

~~~
paol
You're wrong about Portugal at least. All supermarket chains I can think of
keep the eggs in unrefrigerated shelves - usually near the milk "tetrapack"
shelves which are also unrefrigerated.

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equoid
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 not synonymous with Europe.

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

[http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/campsalmsurvey...](http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/campsalmsurvey.pdf)

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.

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BerislavLopac
It was a surprise for me when I moved to London from Croatia, when I saw that
eggs are not refrigerated in the shops, and most people keep it that way at
home too. Back home they are always kept in fridges both in shops and at home,
and fridges regularly come with specially designed egg-holders that are
sometimes even built into the doors and can't be removed.

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IceDane
Oh, damn. I guess I missed that memo from the Council of Things All Europeans
Must Do. Does this mean I'm not a proper european?

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alexbilbie
I'm English and never refrigerate my eggs. I'm an avid cook and I find eggs
stored at room temperature are easier to work with - beating egg whites is
easier, fewer broken eggs when frying/poaching (as there is a smaller change
in temperature), and cold eggs can make batters and mixtures appear lumpy
where the cold makes the fat harden

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vrikis
The ONLY reason I've ever put eggs in the fridge is because my fridge has an
egg tray...

I tend to put my shopping in similar places as where the supermarket had put
them, so things I buy out of the fridge go in the fridge at home, and things I
buy at room temperature go into my pantry at home... except for the eggs, they
go into the egg tray in the fridge!

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leni536
In Hungary we either refrigerate them or not. In most houses there is a "cool
room" ("kamra" in hungarian) where we keep food which are not so sensitive to
the lack of refrigeration. In the dorm we don't have that so I just put the
eggs in the fridge.

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DanBC
See also this article from a year ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5325540](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5325540)

"Why American Eggs Would Be Illegal in a European Supermarket (and vice
versa)"

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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.

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kyberias
In Finland, eggs are not refrigerated in stores but in the fridges at home,
there's usually a specific tray for eggs. People seem to store their eggs at
home in the fridge. I sometimes do, sometimes don't.

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marcosscriven
I'd really like to know the incidence of salmonella poisoning per capita,
normalised by the number of fresh eggs sold, to compare how these policies
actually affect the thing we're concerned about.

~~~
ghayes
From the article, it looks like we're talking about two very different
systems. Specifically, [1] refrigeration, [2] free-range versus laying houses
and [2] mandatory vaccinations. You would likely need data from a range of
countries to even begin to see which policies are most effective by data
analysis.

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llllllllllll
Cambodia here, nobody refrigerates eggs. I've hard boiled eggs that have been
sitting out for a week or two -- I can't tell any difference.

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vnuk
Croatia 100% refrigerated. From what I've seen in Austria and Slovakia also
are refrigerated ...

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octagonal
We refrigerate them in Belgium as well. What a shit article.

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LaGrange
Just a few comments above yours:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8029979](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8029979)

"Belgium also no refrigeration..."

Insert joke about Belgian unity here.

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napolux
In Italy some supermarkets refrigerate them, some not. I personally
refrigerate them at home.

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przemoc
Shouldn't "Europeans" in the title be renamed to "Brits"?

In Poland we keep eggs in the fridge, be it home or market.

