So, I’ve arrived in Spain…picking up a few groceries, and I can’t find the eggs… I’ve checked every cooler… “Donde estan los huevos?” Where are the eggs?
Well, for heaven’s sake, they’re stacked up in the middle of the aisle! Not in a cooler? Strange. Wouldn’t they go bad? I had to investigate why eggs must be refrigerated at home but not in Europe… after all, the chickens and eggs are not any different in North America!
Here is what I learned:
In North America, eggs are cooled right after laying to about 7C (40F), washed, and then sprayed with a chemical sanitizer to kill bacteria. Once chilled, eggs should not be left out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours as the condensation that forms on the shell will provide a place for bacteria to grow.
In Europe, it is unlawful to wash eggs because this is believed to damage the outside layer of the shell (the “cuticle”), allowing bacteria to penetrate the egg more easily.
But Europe has also required farmers to vaccinate their hens since 1997 when thousands of people became ill from salmonella bacteria. This has lead to a rapid decline in cases of salmonella in Europe.
In North America, farmers are not required to vaccinate chickens, although some do. In 2010, the US FDA said it would not legally require vaccine use as “there was not enough evidence to conclude that vaccinating hens against salmonella would prevent people from getting sick”, according to a report in the New York Times.
Instead, North American governments have regulations requiring regular testing for salmonella, refrigeration standards, and strict sanitary codes in place to control the threat of salmonella infection. While it makes sense to have such standards, vaccines have proven to be very effective in controlling many types of infections… and this appears to have been well demonstrated with salmonella in Europe.
Farmers also complained it would be expensive to vaccinate every hen… However, when the costs of washing and spraying millions of eggs, refrigeration, additional inspections and testing are considered, vaccinating hens must be far less expensive …
In Europe, the goal is to prevent eggs from getting dirty in the first place, so washing isn’t necessary. One expert has even suggested that not allowing washing of eggs may be helping to maintain good farm practices…
So, is it better to treat the chicken or the egg? What do you think??
For us, even though it is recommended in Europe to store eggs between 17 – 23C (62 – 73F), it still feels weird to leave them on the counter so ours still end up in the fridge once we take them to our apartment!
Now, where are the olives kept? Las Aceitunas, por favor? It took us a while to find them too… with the snack foods! I guess potato chips and olives are often served together over here!
