Egg-Spectations

I have written about the beloved “Manager’s Specials” before, the hurry it out the door, sell it fast, food that is on the edge of being inedible.  The price is usually reduced by half, marked with a bright orange sticker, and the product is always moved to the front of the rack where it will be noticed first.  This concept has always cracked me up, “I am not going to pay $3.75 for this sandwich now, I will wait for it to be stale or near rotting then I will buy it for $1.85!”.

Today’s manager’s special is eggs, the alleged cage-free variety, not the ones where chickens are held in small prisons that they call cages but rather the ones that roam in a small warehouse with 10,000 other fowl inmates.  The cage-free eggs have an orange sticker that is promoting a $1.83 price rather than the $3.65 regular price.  Seems like a bargain, but there is something rather peculiar about this special.  When you look the egg carton over carefully you will notice that the sell date is today’s date.

This strikes me rather odd, the idea of the mangers special is to move inventory that is approaching the distressed level, before it becomes a complete loss of revenue and dumpster-diver material.  So, what are we saying here, the eggs are on the brink and all of them must be cooked and served today?  Should the cartoon include the following message—please serve today to avoid botulism?  Maybe their only hope of redemption is to be boiled today and turned into deviled eggs.

There is a twist to this story my friends.  My life partner, Christina, a lovely German woman, who has informed me on multiple occasions that we Americans are a little silly when it comes to the shelf life of eggs.  Here, we always have our eggs refrigerated and usually only keep them for a few weeks before we discard them.  We usually follow the use-by date very diligently as that information surely must be accurate where the freshness and health of our eggs are concerned.  In Europe, many do not refrigerate their eggs and generally keep them for up to 4 weeks in an unrefrigerated pantry.  Others keep their eggs for 6 weeks by refrigerating them.

Now, I know what you are saying, “Grumpy, they must be crazy over there across the pond”, well, my friends, the truth is they are not.  In Germany as well as most of Europe, eggs from America would be illegal to sell as they do not meet their requirements for “class A eggs”.  Why you ask, well here in America we have the nasty habit of over-washing everything that we bring to market (with the exception of vegetables, which we sell covered in pesticides).  I recently blogged about chickens in the U.S. being bathed in bleach before selling them.  While that may be acceptable for chicken carcasses (I highly doubt it), it is not for eggs.  When we wash eggs here before selling them, we are removing a protective coating that ensures that we do not allow condensation to penetrate the eggs which can promote mildew and bacterial growth.

During the washing process in the U.S., they also raise the inside temperature of the egg to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit which also aids in the removal of the protective coating on the surface of the eggshell.  This necessitates the need for refrigerating the egg to prevent condensation from penetrating the shell, which would explain why Europeans can leave their eggs in an unrefrigerated pantry (they still have the protective coating).  In some European markets, you will find eggs that have feathers or poop on them, for most that would be disgusting, for me it is a reminder of simpler times growing up when we got unpasteurized milk and eggs with poop on them.  However, since the unwashed eggs are resistant to mildew and bacteria, they are much safer than our washed variety.

Getting back to the managers discounted eggs, I am now more concerned than ever about buying them since we have washed away the protective coating and introduced greater risks to the eggs.  The older, discounted eggs are not a good idea especially since they are at the legal limit of the store selling period.  At this point, they have been subjected to the constant opening of the refrigerated case and may have experienced condensation. If there has been condensation on the unprotected eggshell, then there has likely been the absorption of mildew or bacteria.  Again, I must ask the question, why do corporations feel the need to poison customers in the name of profits?  Does the FDA really the right answers to health in our foods?  So, when asked–how do I want my eggs today? Simple—unwashed, covered in feathers and chicken shite.

Talk to Ya Later

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer @2019 All Rights Reserved