• fidodo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    6 months ago

    The biggest reason eggs are refrigerated in the US is because they’re not vaccinated for salmonella, so refrigeration is needed to inhibit growth. The US was able to do that since they have the infrastructure for end to end refrigeration. It’s not necessarily wrong, it’s just another way to do it. Since salmonella can also be on the outside of the egg they need to be washed, and since they’re refrigerated the loss of the protective layer doesn’t matter. I guess in Europe with the vaccination it also lowers the chance of salmonella on the outside of the egg allowing the outside to remain unwashed and protective of the inside making refrigeration unnecessary. There’s just not enough of a reason to change things in the us now since the refrigeration method is already in place and switching would cost more up front. The main downside is that you can’t eat raw eggs in the US which means some dishes can’t be made, but the vast majority of the US isn’t interested in raw egg dishes anyways.

  • Gork@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    6 months ago

    As an American, I cannot legally touch any egg that hasn’t been ultra-pasteurized followed by continuous cold chain refrigeration and served in either a Styrofoam or pulped paper cardboard egg carton.

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      I think you have been misinformed. As an American, I can harvest eggs just like the pictured ones from my own backyard on a regular basis.

      They don’t even cost any money, they come out of chicken asses for free.

      • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Let’s not pretend the acquisition and upkeep of chickens is free… if you eat a lot of eggs it is absolutely worth it, but there is some cost in setting up a coop, getting chickens, keeping chickens fed and safe from predators, disease, etc.

        Plus you have to have property to keep them on and be allowed to have them on your property. For most Americans that isn’t possible due to lack of home ownership or HOA restrictions on what animals you can have on “your” property. (HOAs are bullshit)

      • Mr_Blott@lemmy.worldOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        6 months ago

        What a noob. Ours come from shops. That way, our entire fuckin garden doesn’t smell like a crashed ammonia tanker

        • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 months ago

          As a side note, if your chicken coop smells like a crashed ammonia tanker you need to add more carbon in the coop. Dead leaves, cardboard, shredded wood or wood chips are working well.

      • nrezcm@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Bananas in the US get washed and lose their protective coating so it’s fairly normal to see them in the fridge in US homes.

          • nrezcm@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            Way to humble brag about your imported European bananas that don’t require refrigeration.

            (It was a joke btw lol)

      • Soulcreator@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        6 months ago

        I’m pretty sure that’s a stock image so I don’t think that’s a pic of anyone’s legit fridge.

        But to answer your question, you can keep bananas on the counter until they reach your preferred level of ripeness and then put them in the fridge to slow down the ripening process so you have a few more days to eat them before they turn to complete mush. I do it all time to ensure I always have bananas around at my preferred level of ripeness.

        • Smoogs@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          6 months ago

          They brown more in the fridge. If anything cold speeds up the banana going gross.

          Avocados work the way you say. I wouldn’t do it to a banana

          • Soulcreator@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            Yes the outside goes brown, but the inside slows down it’s ripening process. Eventually they will all go to mush, but you can keep them at peak ripeness for a few days longer by putting them in the fridge.

            Then again most people won’t eat a banana if it has a single brown spot on it, so I’m probably wasting my breath by telling people they can prevent food waste by eating discolored but perfectly ripe food.

  • I don’t really know if there are laws about not selling eggs like this. Are there? I understood the practice of washing and sterilizing eggs came about as a marketting thing, b/c Americans tend to buy based on superficial appearance, and washed eggs sold better.

    Is egg-washing mandated?

    • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      6 months ago

      About 60 percent of the eggs sold in the United States come from processors who participate in USDA’s grading service, voluntarily paying to have their eggs graded so the eggs can display a “USDA Grade A” or “AA” shield on their cartons. The grade is based on qualities that can be observed in the shell, yolk, and egg white when the egg is inspected with lights and other specialized equipment. Specifics on egg-grading criteria can be found here.

      Egg processors who participate are required to spray-wash their eggs with warm water and use a sanitizing rinse and air-drying techniques specified by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

      https://tellus.ars.usda.gov/stories/articles/how-we-store-our-eggs-and-why

      FYI multiple studies have found that there is no safety benefit to washing. It just looks nicer, and people think it’s safer.

        • RobotsLeftHand@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 months ago

          Yeah, as an American I’m surprised it’s only 60 percent. Pretty much anything I’ve ever seen available to me has been washed/graded/refrigerated. Maybe farmer’s markets? But no way do they have 40 percent market share. I’ve occasionally had friends with coops so I’m not unfamiliar with having shelf stable eggs, though.

          At this point I think the thing that’d freak out Americans the most is the whole thing about not needing to refrigerate. It’s ingrained now.

          • One of the funniest food things I’ve seen was an interview with a French chef, who was talking about cheeses. I wish I could remembeg it well enough to quote him, but he was basically saying, in Europe, you don’t refrigerate cheese. Cheese has cultures, it is a living thing. Conversely, in America, cheese is dead, and we put it in the morgue, in little body bags.

            Edit I found it! It was Clotaire Rapaille, and he’s a market researcher, not a chef. The quote came from a 2003 Frontline episode on advertising and marketing:

            For example, if I know that in America the cheese is dead, which means is pasteurized, which means legally dead and scientifically dead, and we don’t want any cheese that is alive, then I have to put that up front. I have to say this cheese is safe, is pasteurized, is wrapped up in plastic. I know that plastic is a body bag. You can put it in the fridge. I know the fridge is the morgue; that’s where you put the dead bodies. And so once you know that, this is the way you market cheese in America.

            I started working with a French company in America, and they were trying to sell French cheese to the Americans. And they didn’t understand, because in France the cheese is alive, which means that you can buy it young, mature or old, and that’s why you have to read the age of the cheese when you go to buy the cheese. So you smell, you touch, you poke. If you need cheese for today, you want to buy a mature cheese. If you want cheese for next week, you buy a young cheese. And when you buy young cheese for next week, you go home, [but] you never put the cheese in the refrigerator, because you don’t put your cat in the refrigerator. It’s the same; it’s alive. We are very afraid of getting sick with cheese. By the way, more French people die eating cheese than Americans die. But the priority is different; the logic of emotion is different. The French like the taste before safety. Americans want safety before the taste.

    • june@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      Most of us don’t and many of us are skeeved out by this. I recognize that it’s stupid and these eggs are fine, but it still makes me feel gaggy looking at them.

  • where_am_i@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    6 months ago

    Heads up, OP: these eggs have been industrially washed, sterilized, then someone took a feather and glued it on them. Look it up.

    You ever wondered why you’d find at most one of them per box?

    Basically, you’re as big of an idiot as your portrait of an American grocery shopper, but you’re also a naive hypocrite.