Should backyard eggs be washed before storage and/or use, and why?

[Ernie]

Due to the coating on eggs...

Washing eggs that you plan to incubate supposedly takes off a coating that protects the embryo from outside harmful matter.

If you want eggs to last the longest, I think refrigerating them unwashed and then washing before using them probably extends their shelf life the longest.

I think that washing them and/or not refrigerating them reduces their shelf life.

[wesleyb]

My grandmother never washed them, she didn't refridgerate either. They sat out in the chicken coop in a gallon coffee tin straight through the Georgia summer. When she needed some, she walked out and brought them in.

Eggs have a certain shelf-life without being refrigerated. What I can't understand is why not washing them would extend that shelf life, which is what some people claim.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that we don't wash our eggs and often don't refrigerate them and we have never gotten sick or had spoiled eggs. Of course, 'your results may vary'.

The reason usually given for not washing them is they have a protective coating when they leave the hen and washing destroys this coating. If you pick up a freshly laid egg you will notice it is wet and slightly sticky.

Another reason I don't wash them is I have read that washing without proper water temperature and disinfectant can actually cause contamination by letting contaminants through the porous shell. And of course it's easier not to . . . I'm interested in reading other's experiences with this.

[mike]

Due to the coating on eggs...

Washing eggs that you plan to incubate supposedly takes off a coating that protects the embryo from outside harmful matter.

If you want eggs to last the longest, I think refrigerating them unwashed and then washing before using them probably extends their shelf life the longest.

I think that washing them and/or not refrigerating them reduces their shelf life.

Why do you think not washing them extends shelf life?

[mike]

My grandmother never washed them, she didn't refridgerate either. They sat out in the chicken coop in a gallon coffee tin straight through the Georgia summer. When she needed some, she walked out and brought them in.

Eggs have a certain shelf-life without being refrigerated. What I can't understand is why not washing them would extend that shelf life, which is what some people claim.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that we don't wash our eggs and often don't refrigerate them and we have never gotten sick or had spoiled eggs. Of course, 'your results may vary'.

The reason usually given for not washing them is they have a protective coating when they leave the hen and washing destroys this coating. If you pick up a freshly laid egg you will notice it is wet and slightly sticky.

Another reason I don't wash them is I have read that washing without proper water temperature and disinfectant can actually cause contamination by letting contaminants through the porous shell. And of course it's easier not to . . . I'm interested in reading other's experiences with this.

What's the longest period of time from the lay date that you would trust eating unrefrigerated eggs?

[wesleyb]

Eggs have a certain shelf-life without being refrigerated. What I can't understand is why not washing them would extend that shelf life, which is what some people claim.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that we don't wash our eggs and often don't refrigerate them and we have never gotten sick or had spoiled eggs. Of course, 'your results may vary'.

The reason usually given for not washing them is they have a protective coating when they leave the hen and washing destroys this coating. If you pick up a freshly laid egg you will notice it is wet and slightly sticky.

Another reason I don't wash them is I have read that washing without proper water temperature and disinfectant can actually cause contamination by letting contaminants through the porous shell. And of course it's easier not to . . . I'm interested in reading other's experiences with this.

What's the longest period of time from the lay date that you would trust eating unrefrigerated eggs?

A week or two.

[steve-in-kville]

What's the longest period of time from the lay date that you would trust eating unrefrigerated eggs?

We've pushed the envelope on this. If kept in a cool basement, we can get store bought eggs to go for quite a while. Older eggs hard-boil the best, at least when it comes to peeling.

[Soloist]

What's the longest period of time from the lay date that you would trust eating unrefrigerated eggs?

As long as it still passes the float test I’ll eat it.
Timeline doesn’t really matter in my mind.
If they’re store-bought eggs though… and they’re not refrigerated I won’t risk it.

[mike]

Anecdotally, I can tell you that we don't wash our eggs and often don't refrigerate them and we have never gotten sick or had spoiled eggs. Of course, 'your results may vary'.

The reason usually given for not washing them is they have a protective coating when they leave the hen and washing destroys this coating. If you pick up a freshly laid egg you will notice it is wet and slightly sticky.

Another reason I don't wash them is I have read that washing without proper water temperature and disinfectant can actually cause contamination by letting contaminants through the porous shell. And of course it's easier not to . . . I'm interested in reading other's experiences with this.

What's the longest period of time from the lay date that you would trust eating unrefrigerated eggs?

A week or two.

Yeah I don't think that's too long at all. We have friends with a large commercial layer house, and when they have surplus eggs we have stored those at room temperature for at least a month with no problem. They were even washed.

[ken_sylvania]

My grandmother never washed them, she didn't refridgerate either. They sat out in the chicken coop in a gallon coffee tin straight through the Georgia summer. When she needed some, she walked out and brought them in.

Eggs have a certain shelf-life without being refrigerated. What I can't understand is why not washing them would extend that shelf life, which is what some people claim.

Washing them removes the natural coating from the egg allowing bacteria to enter the egg through the pores in the shell. A common method of washing really dirty eggs - soaking them first in water - provides an ideal environment for contaminated water to soak into the shell.

We used to raise eggs commercially for a hatchery. We were prohibited from washing eggs - if there was "dirt" on the eggs we would wipe it off or scratch it off with a sanding block. Washed eggs had a habit of occasionally "exploding" in the incubators. If a flock had an unusually hign number of floor eggs that were too dirty to incubate the hatchery would occasionally wash them and then put all of the washed eggs in a separate incubator.

[Neto]

What's the longest period of time from the lay date that you would trust eating unrefrigerated eggs?

When we went out to the village (Amazon) we took enough eggs to last us for a month, or more if we were staying for a shorter time and would not have a supply flight in the middle of our session. We did have a gas refrigerator for a few years, but did not replace it when it sprung a leak and all of the ammonia leaked out. We would usually take 2 or more flats with us. Once we had a couple of eggs that exploded when my wife cracked the shell - black nasty stuff.

What we did to make them last longer was to turn them every day. (Does it help? Who knows. But it doesn't hurt.) Once we were told that they could be kept much longer if you put them in a large container, in wheat germ. The idea was that it kept them cooler, since this was in the jungle, and we didn't have a cellar, either. Bad idea. The eggs apparently had chicken lice eggs on them, and the entire house got infested with them. Tiny little buggers. I'll just say that it was a MAJOR job of getting rid of them, and we never tried that again.

I think that the longest we ever kept them was probably around 2 months, perhaps a bit longer. But toward the end of that time they were used only for cooking; fried or boiled they would have a bit of a different taste, but mostly they just didn't act the same - can't explain it exactly.

Might have been just hear-say back then, or from experience, but my grandma never washed the eggs before selling them. She had a soft brush that she cleaned them with. We never washed the eggs before storage, either. (Before cracking, of course we did. I do even now with eggs from the grocery store.)