Washing Eggs: A Smart Idea? Not Really

My husband and I have been chicken farming for a few years now and my mom has had chickens for years. I love chicken farming and the fact that we always have fresh eggs.

I always washed them because I figured they were dirty and common sense said to clean them. That makes sense right? Well it did to me until I came across information on the “bloom” or “cuticle”. The information I found amazed me. And we will get to what I learned in just a little bit but first…should you wash your farm fresh eggs?

No! Farm fresh eggs are coated in something called a “bloom”. This protects the egg from bad bacteria. When you wash the egg the bloom is washed off and your egg is no longer protected from bacteria. However, You will want to clean the egg right before eating. If possible rub off feces or dirt. Avoid water if at all possible. If you do use water make sure it is hot. Cold water draws the bacteria into the egg.

Whats crazy is that when you wash your eggs with water you not only are removing the bloom but you potentially rubbing bacteria into the egg with the water. I had no idea! I always washed my chicken eggs with water. I had no clue there was a much better way to wash and store my eggs. After I explain the bloom in a little more detail we will go over the best ways to wash and store eggs.

What the Bloom?

Just before the chicken lays the egg, a protective layer covers the outside of the egg. This could also be called a cuticle. It seems strange because even though an egg shell is fragile it seems fairly thick. But believe it or not when the bloom is washed off it is very easy for bacteria to get into the pores of the egg.

The bloom seals the egg completely to keep out bacteria, and moisture loss from the egg. This is amazing to me. Eggs gets super dirty right? So without the bloom the part of the egg we eat would be covered in bacteria.

But nature is pretty awesome and the egg was created to protect itself from the inevitable. The bloom also helps the egg to stay fresh for longer. If you don’t wash your eggs and keep them in the fridge they will stay the most fresh. They can last up to 5 weeks this way!

Okay, so now that we understand the bloom…

What is the best way to wash and store eggs?

Well the BEST way to wash your eggs is not to…But I do realize that sometimes that is not possible. When you wash your eggs you do have to keep them in the fridge. You can no longer store them on the counter because you have removed the bloom. So what are the best ways to clean eggs while still protecting them?

Pant leg

Ha! I’m not kidding the best way to wash your eggs is to just wipe off the junk on it. I am pretty laid back here on my homestead and yes slightly lazy. So you will catch me doing things like this on a regular basis. I mean who wants to take the time to get a towel when your pants will work just as well? When you do it this way the bloom will stay on the egg and you can get most of the junk off of your egg.

Again, you can wash it better when you go to cook it but if you wipe it enough to get the big junk off you can store it that way and it will last the longest.

Hot water

When you do choose to use water you always want to use warm or hot water. Cold water works like a vacuum and sucks the bacteria into the egg. Try not to let your eggs sit in the water. Just get it wet enough to wipe the junk off.

Veggie scrub/sponge

If you have read my article on cleaning you will know that I love norwex. They have a cloth used to scrub fruits and veggies clean. It has an abrasive side to get dirt and such off of veggies. I have found that it works wonderfully to clean eggs. If you wanna give it a try you can click on the image and it will direct you to amazon.

The cloth is amazing and and can be used for lots of other things as well. But I gotta stop there. Like I said I love norwex and could go on for days. If you want to learn more about norwex you can read my article here. Anyway, here is the amazing cloth…

If you don’t have the amazing veggie scrub you can use a sponge the same way! If you get the sponge wet make sure that it is hot water. It is not necessary to scrub the whole egg just the parts that have junk on them.

Sand paper

This works the same as the sponge idea. But it protects the egg more because it is dry. You will still be removing the bloom but there is not water used so you will be avoiding the “vacuum” danger.

Onto storing…

You can store your farm fresh eggs on the counter. This works great if you go through your eggs quickly. But they will not last nearly as long. Actually one day on the counter equals 7 days in the fridge.

So keeping them in the fridge will make them last 7 times longer. So if you have the room just stick them in the fridge. But if you have an over packed fridge you can totally just leave them out.

Should I wash eggs before refrigerating?

This is up to you. As we have talked about there is no way you have to do it. If you decided to wash your eggs you will HAVE to keep them in the fridge. You also want to make sure you eat those before the not washed eggs. I store my eggs in cartons and make sure to eat the oldest ones first. In our house we go through eggs so fast I don’t really have to worry about them going bad.

Salmonella from not washing?

Salmonella is a bacteria that is usually associated with poultry. Salmonella contaminates the inside of the egg before the shell is even formed. Eggs can get salmonella from poop which is in the area where they laid their eggs.

Sadly, you can’t tell if your eggs have been contaminated or not. But if you wash your eggs properly and make sure to cook them you should not no problem. Also, if you can keep the area where your chickens lay their eggs clean this will help tremendously. This will also take away the need to clean your eggs at all!

Keeping a clean chicken area

So we have now learned that the best thing for your eggs is to not wash them at all. But how is that possible? Most of the time they are covered in crap (literally) and dirt.

We also found out that the eggs can get salmonella from a dirty laying area. So it is very important to keep the area where your chickens lay eggs clean. But chickens are nasty animals so how do you keep their area clean?

Clean nesting boxes

Most people use straw or hay in their nesting boxes and coops. This works well you just want to make sure you clean it out every so often. You can clean it out every day but I don’t have the time for that so I think once a week is plenty. When you do clean it out put the old hay into your compost pile.

Another great way to quit having dirty eggs is to use sand on their nesting boxes and also in the coop. This essentially works like a littler box. You will want to sprinkle garden lime and DE in it every 6 months and then clean it out daily. The best thing is to keep a 5 gallon bucket in the coop and just put the old sand in there. When it is full just dump it into your compost pile.

A Clean coop and path

You also want to do your best to keep the coop and run as clean as possible. If your chicken run is all wet, and their poop is all over they will drag it into their clean nesting boxes. What I find works the best is to lay as much straw down as possible.

If you do not have straw laid down in their whole area that is fine just try to have a decent path in front of their nesting boxes so that they can essentially wipe their feet before they enter the boxes.

Roosting Area

Chickens like to roost. If they don not have a place to do so they will go in and soil their boxes. So when you build your coop make sure you put a bar across the top of the coop for them to roost on. It is also a good idea to not put the roosting bar over their boxes so that they don’t poop in the boxes while they are roosting.

Collect eggs often

Do your best to collect your eggs every day. Depending on how many eggs you have you might have to collect them twice a day. This is a great job for kids. Just make sure you teach them to handle them with care!

It is best to collect the eggs as often as possible because the longer your eggs are in the boxes the more of a chance they have to get soiled.

Are eggs washed before selling?

If you go into any store in the US will you find eggs for sale covered in poop and dirt? NO, obviously not. But if washing the eggs is bad then what do they do with the eggs at the store? Well you guessed it they wash them. So to answer the question “are eggs washed before selling?”, Yes they are! But there is more to it….

Now this should not surprise me because I am well aware of how low the standards for food is in the US and how poorly our food is processed, but this did kind of blow my mind. Did you know that the way we sell eggs in the US would be illegal in the UK (United Kingdoms) and the EU? (European unions)

In the US it is required that our eggs be completely washed and sanitized before they hit the store shelves. And as you can guess the eggs for sale in the EU and the UK can not be washed or cleaned at all. What?! how does that work?

Well it actually encourages the farmers to take care of their chickens and keep their area clean so that they can produce the cleanest eggs possible. They understand that nobody will want to buy their dirty eggs so it forces them to care more about their chickens.

So how do they clean the eggs in the US?

Well thankfully they are aware of the fact that cold water is a terrible idea. So they require the eggs to be washed in water hotter then 20 degrees but no hotter then 90 degrees. Then they clean the egg with an odorless detergent. After they are washed and sprayed with the detergent the eggs will then be rinsed in a warm water chemical spray to remove any other bacteria. After this the egg is dried completely.

If an egg is completely dry it won’t suck in any bacteria. But after the egg gets wet at all it is now able to draw in bacteria again. And what if they facility slacked off one day? If they did any of the above things wrong it throws the whole idea of a clean egg out the window.

What if their water was cold? A worker gets lazy uses cold water on a batch of eggs and they are all at risk of drawing in bacteria now.

The more I learn about how my food is taken care of in the US the more upset I get. They know that washing eggs is a bad idea but they don’t want to worry about the health of our food they are just worried about the money they can make. But then again this just encourages me to do more for myself and get closer to self sufficiency.

I also get asked…

Do I need to wash eggs from the grocery store?

I think we covered this pretty well already, but no you don’t need to wash your eggs from the store. As we just learned they do more then they need to already. And as far as visible dirt your store eggs will be free of anything.

As far as my friends from around the world who might be reading this I would not touch your eggs until you are ready to eat them. Once you are ready to cook your eggs I would just rinse them off or wash them with hot water. If they don’t seem dirty then I would not worry about it at all.