If you have traveled overseas and visited with an interested eye the local grocery stores and food markets, have you ever wondered why some countries, mainly the U.S. and Canada, sell eggs under refrigeration, while most other countries sell them on regular shelves?
A key principle from the Codex Alimentarius, the grouping of food standards adopted by the FAO/WHO’s Codex Alimentarius Committee, is that “from primary production to the point of consumption, eggs should be subject to effective and validated control measures intended to achieve the appropriate level of public health protection.”
Opposite approaches
Interestingly, under this same principle of food safety, two camps have been created and have adopted opposite tactics.
In most of the world, eggs are not refrigerated throughout the distribution channel and sold in stores as non-refrigerated items usually next to baking goods. Along with that, the washing of eggs on farms or in egg packing stations is not permitted. This allows for the cuticle, a fine coating deposited by the hen during the last stage of the egg formation, to continue to play its role as a protective barrier throughout the life of the egg.
In a very few countries, the eggs are kept under refrigeration, starting often right on the farms. Eggs will then be washed at warm temperatures, blow dried, packed and kept under refrigeration all the way to the shelves of the stores. When refrigerated, eggs are more sensitive to temperature fluctuations and will “sweat” quickly if exposed to warmer temperatures, increasing the potential risk of bacterial contamination through the eggshell or the development of fungus or mildew on the shell.
So, is one method safer than the other?
Which is best?
A review of recent data from the United States Department of Agriculture and the European Food Safety Authority showed that the incidence of Salmonella enteritis —one of the main food borne diseases associated with the consumption of eggs— is about the same regardless of the methods used to distribute eggs to consumers.
Both methods protect the consumers similarly well and are good complements of the strict on-farm food safety standards implemented by egg farmers, however other factors come into play where refrigerating or not is concerned.
Recently, retailers in Australia tried to sell eggs under refrigeration. The huge investment required to buy cooling space in stores constituted a huge hurdle and category managers soon realized there valuable cooling shelves could be used for higher-value food items. It brought an end to this attempt to refrigerate eggs.
Interestingly, the refrigeration of shell eggs in the U.S. and Canada most likely facilitated in the mid-1980s the emergence at retail of a new product category, liquid eggs. These pasteurized products must be kept under refrigeration throughout the value chain. In both countries, there products are found right above the shelves carrying the refrigerated table eggs — very convenient for consumers to find them.
Attempts in Australia and the U.K. to introduce these liquid eggs in retail stores have been hampered by the need for the consumers to search for these products among milk, butter and yogurt rather than among baking goods where they would normally find table eggs.
Dr. Vincent Guyonnet is a consultant to the poultry sector with a focus on international development.
