Re: Should backyard eggs be washed before storage and/or use, and why?
Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 12:38 pm
No they should not be washed.
Eggs are laid with a natural membrane that hardens around the shell and protects it. If you wash it in water you will be washing off this membrane which can allow impurities and bacteria like salmonella to absorb into the egg itself through osmosis. The fluid inside the egg (the yolk and egg white) has a higher concentration of particles than the water you are using to wash with so it will suck in water and potentially bacteria or other impurities through osmosis.
If the egg is dirty the recommendation is to wipe it off, not wash it in water.
The FDA requires commercially produced eggs to be washed. But they are washed using special disinfecting chemicals and so are both washed and sterilized in one process. Tap water with a little soap isn't the same thing as the disinfecting washes that commercial egg producers use.
Eggs are laid with a natural membrane that hardens around the shell and protects it. If you wash it in water you will be washing off this membrane which can allow impurities and bacteria like salmonella to absorb into the egg itself through osmosis. The fluid inside the egg (the yolk and egg white) has a higher concentration of particles than the water you are using to wash with so it will suck in water and potentially bacteria or other impurities through osmosis.
If the egg is dirty the recommendation is to wipe it off, not wash it in water.
The FDA requires commercially produced eggs to be washed. But they are washed using special disinfecting chemicals and so are both washed and sterilized in one process. Tap water with a little soap isn't the same thing as the disinfecting washes that commercial egg producers use.