Do you guys keep eggs in refrigerator or not?

49 comments

  2. From the store? Yes. The shells are washed during the whole industrial farm to shelf process. Washing them makes them lose a bit of protection against microbes.

    From an actual farm? No, not necessary.

  6. I would like to know if keeping fresh eggs in the refrigerator is a bad thing. I always have people telling me to leave the farm fresh eggs on the counter, but I have room in the fridge, so why not?

  8. Store bought eggs are not shelf stable, I’ve seen people coating them with something to help them be shelf stable but I don’t know how effective that is and hardly anyone does it

  9. The FDA rules that washing the eggs lowers the chance of salmonella poisoning, but this removes the cuticle which keeps bacteria from getting inside. So we have to refrigerate them.

  10. Yes. Store eggs have to be refrigerated or they will go bad. I bought some eggs from a colleague’s personal farm a few times and didn’t have to refrigerate those, but I almost always get them from the store.

  12. I have chickens and we do not wash the eggs unless they are really gross. If we don’t wash them, they don’t need to be refrigerated, but we usually do for the convenience. All store bought eggs are washed and so they have to be refrigerated. They are kept in fridges or coolers in the store as well.

  13. Yes they have to be unless you are getting them straight from someone that hasn’t cleaned/pasteurized them.

  14. We do not. Only on occasion when we have to purchase eggs from a store. Most of ours are fresh though, so we don’t.

  16. Yes. American egg producers wash the eggs which means they need to be refrigerated.

    Other countries don’t wash the eggs. That can mean a slightly higher change of salmonella contamination. But it means you don’t have to refrigerate the eggs. The downside to not washing is that the eggs can have manure, and dirt on the outside.

    [Here is a write up](https://www.statefoodsafety.com/Resources/Resources/why-do-americans-put-eggs-in-the-fridge)

    Up here in New England a lot of small farms and people keep chickens so you can find unwashed eggs that don’t need to be refrigerated but usually people still refrigerate them because it increases the shelf life.

    I’m actually going to a neighbor’s house today to get some “farm fresh” eggs (and by “farm fresh” I mean they have 8 chickens in their back yard and almost always have more eggs than they can use and I will try to pay for them and they will politely refuse but then I will bring them some baked goods later to set the balance right).

  17. Yes, but only if they are grown in the US or Canada. Commercial chicken eggs are washed and retain little of the waxy cuticle normally on the shell (and occasionally very lightly coated in an oil mostly for sheen). This makes the shell porous since there’s no layer of protection between the inside of the egg and the outer environment.

    The rest of the world? They aren’t washed in this way. Not necessary to refrigerate for the first two weeks or so.

  19. I keep them in the fridge because they must be refrigerated. USDA requires that eggs be washed, and this removes the layer that lets eggs be out of a fridge.

  20. Yes, eggs purchased in America (and probably Canada) *must* be refrigerated for health safety purposes.

    Because of different farming practices and health regulations, eggs in the US are washed before packaging with water that has to be a minimum of 20 degrees Fahrenheit (10-11 degrees C) greater than the internal temperature of the egg. This washing removes a thin, external protective layer on the egg known as the cuticle. Removing the cuticle makes the egg shell more porous and allows bacteria to enter the egg.

    This washing is required because of industrial chicken farming practices where hens lay eggs in very crowded conditions. (Industrial farming practices are a whole other topic we could get into.) As a result, many eggs laid at massive chicken farms are soiled and need to be cleaned before sale. Combined with much longer transport times in the US (remember the US is significantly larger than all of Europe combined and most people don’t live anywhere near a chicken farm), a lack of cleaning would create a higher potential for external contamination of the egg. Hence the washing.

    But because the eggs are washed and the cuticle removed, *then* refrigeration is required post-washing to keep bacteria from penetrating the now-more-porous egg shell, resulting in internal contamination of the egg.

    In Europe and many other countries, washing eggs is actually prohibited. Thus the protective cuticle layer is not removed, thus refrigeration is not required.

    But, in the US, if you, say, kept chicken coops in your backyard and picked up your own eggs daily from the coop, those eggs don’t need to be refrigerated because they haven’t gone through the industrial washing process.

  21. Have to refrigerated it because it was already in the refrigerator of the supermarket and before that was already on a refrigerated truck….

  22. Hold up… So if we didn’t wash our eggs they would be more resistant to bacteria and spoiling? Why are we washing our eggs??

  23. Yes, as I understand it, once they have been refrigerated, you have to keep refrigerating them. All the stores only sell them refrigerated, but if you get them straight from a farm and *ask* for ones that have never been refrigerated you can get them that way and keep them that way. However, refrigerating them is the default mode, so you do have to ask.

    I have a friend who lives on a sailboat, and before they go on a several-months-long voyage, they stock up on eggs that have never been refrigerated.

    Editing to say, in my county, in my state, people with yards (gardens in UK English) of a certain size are permitted to keep chickens as long as they don’t have a rooster. One can get eggs from them, as well.

    I have another friend who kept khaki Campbell ducks. They lay an egg a day, and she had six or eight ducks, so she was constantly giving out dozens of eggs.

  28. Store bought eggs are washed of the natural coatings that makes the eggs’ partially permeable shells safer from bacteria. So the eggs are kept in the fridge but do not need to be washed. I know lots of people who just get their eggs from locals and I expect most of them would have probably been washed and kept in the fridge also. But, there are some people who are aware of how much better an egg cooks (in most cases) when it starts at room temperature. Just the majority of people think there’s no alternative to storing them refrigerated.

  29. Ask your homesteading neighbors if they’ve washed their eggs. If they say yes, refrigerate them. If not, leave them on the counter.

  30. Like others have said, you must refrigerate washed eggs. All eggs purchased in US grocery stores have been washed. Eggs I get from my hens can sit out on my counter if I don’t wash them.

  31. They’re kept in the refrigerated units at the grocery store, so I do the same at home. If they weren’t I wouldn’t either. Just knowing they’ve already gone from non frig to frig I don’t want them to cool off again. Weird maybe but eh, no big deal

  32. We get most of our eggs from a neighbor and my wife always puts them in the fridge. I’d rather she didn’t but if she has more confidence in them being refrigerated I pick my battles.

  36. Negative.

    We’re old school. Grow our own food. Raise our own animals.

    Eggs?They are [“waterglassed”](https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/water-glassing-eggs#:~:text=the%20perfect%20solution.-,What%20is%20Water%20glassing%20Eggs%3F,day%20the%20hen%20laid%20them) and stored in gallon glass jars in the basement cold room. We generally get 14 to 16 months storage from store-bought eggs and over 2 years from our own layers.

    The difference is the store bought have been washed, and that process removes a natural protective coating that makes ’em store longer.

  37. Yes- if I bought them in a store. No if I get farm fresh and they haven’t yet been cleaned or refrigerated.

  42. We do, yes.

    That’s because eggs in the United States are washed–and are no longer shelf-stable as a result. (The washing is intended to remove salmonella from the outside shell, but it also removes the protective outer layer that allows eggs to be stored at room temperature.)

  43. Our eggs are washed so they need to be refrigerated. As far as I’m aware European eggs are not and can be kept out. Our eggs are banned in Europe because they are washed and European eggs are banned in the US because they are not washed.

  45. We have to since eggs are washed before packaging and shipping and it washes the protective layer off the eggs.

  46. Store bought eggs typically need to be refrigerated. If you have your own chicken you mostly leave them out but it’s uncommon to have your own chickens.

  47. Factories wash the eggs with some process that removed a protective outer layer, and condensation can cause bacteria to grow and penetrate the eggshell. I *think* the official rule is that if theyre never in refrigeration, theyre okay to be left out, since they wont condensate, but almost always theyre refrigerated at some point.

    I was so lost in a European grocery store trying to find eggs and was absolutely baffled that they were just sitting on some random shelf with crackers lol

    The eggs there also tend to occasionally have little feathers or dirt on them, and meat spots in the eggs. Not a problem, just different when first encountering it

  48. We raise chickens and get 9-12 eggs a day. Before they are washed, they stay on the counter. After they are washed they get refrigerated. When chickens lay an egg, there is actually a protective enzyme on the shell to keep us from spoiling. Once you wash it off, it needs to be refrigerated so the eggs will last longer.

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