My cousin Isabelle visit during the spring for the first time in decades . She is born and bred French ( my expectant - gran provide for the Americas whereas her relatives stayed ) , so we do n’t often get to see each other . The times we do drop together have been joyous , starting with childhood mischief and then tween escapade . During this visit we spend fourth dimension valuate our lives and comparing notes , including , as it turns out , the subject area of orchis storage and sales , and how things differ in the U.S. and Europe .
Isabelle live in Montpellier , home to the stunningUniversité de Montpellier , so she wanted to tour the local university town of Ann Arbor . Another cultural comparison she insist on was a sojourn to our supermarket . In suburban France as a pre - stripling , I commemorate being awed into silence by thehypermarchésthere . They were all socavernous , carry a selection so broad as to admit wine-colored , produce , sandals and slate boards . Over meter I ’ve watched U.S. markets such as Meijer and Kroger expand their offering and become far more European in this regard .
Yet Isabelle point out a remaining dispute , though : how safety standards lead to differing approaches to ball storage and sale . Sure , she may have nod her approval at the seafood and butchery department and expressed her delight with the olive oil and vinegar selections . And she could n’t quite hide her patronage at the cheese counter . Her heavy shock , however , hap in the dairy department .
“ Your orchis are sell this way ! ? ” she proclaim .
Isabelle was absolutely deck . She could n’t resist opening carton after carton and examining several eggs up close , feeling their frisson upon her cheek and inspecting their shell . She even go so far as to whiff several . I ’m sure shoppers must have retrieve she had some fetish over eggs or egg storage , but I know the reason behind Isabelle ’s behavior .
Egg Storage & Sales In Europe
I spent most of my 7th twelvemonth hold out with Isabelle ’s family in Melun , 25 mile outside of Paris . The cultivation seismic disturbance I experienced attending schooltime there was rivaled only by shopping for groceries . We did n’t cruise the hypermarché with bright carts ; our visits there were infrequent . Instead , we manoeuver to the shopping centre of town , where stalls laden with foodstuff lined the streets . Aunt Judith would moderate us on a grand term of enlistment as she determined who had the fresh offerings and best bargain that day . I wonder at tonic milk , sold on icing in returnable trash bottle ; at slaughter chickens and ducks , hanging unplucked by their legs ; at pot of sugar third power , weighed on lowly silver scale , then packed into tiny paper sacks .
And bollock ? There were sea of eggs ! white-hot eggs , tan eggs , dark chocolate - browned eggs . I ’d never see anything but white eggs at our supermarket . I ’d also never see eggs sell unrefrigerated . marketer simply display their testis in flats , and customers would select which nut they wanted , pack them not into styrofoam cartons but paper or mesh bags . My 2nd surprisal fall when we unloaded our grocery bag : the egg weredirty . Bits of feather and shuck clung to some shells , while dapple of dirt coated others . None of this bothered Aunt Judith . She just drive them from their bag and placed them in a particular tray — on her kitchen counter ! This method of egg store floored me . She did n’t put them into her icebox ’s egg tray . She did n’t even strip them until she needed them . It was mind boggle .
European Safety Standards Differ
As an testicle farmer , I now understand why those French securities industry stalls keep their eggs unwashed and at room temperature : Their eggs were protected by nature . Just before a hen lays an egg , she supply a protective covering called abloomor cuticle to the egg to seal the porous carapace . The prime greatly repress moisture loss within the eggs , keep the interior freshman for a longer menstruum of meter . More importantly , the heyday helps preclude bacterium from penetrating the eggshell . A new laid , unwashed egg with its bloom inviolate can stay fresh at room temperature foras retentive as 28 24-hour interval , after which it should be chuck out .
I also now see why the French egg sellers did n’t cool down their egg . Without electrical energy at their street stalls , refrigerated eggs would before long warm up and develop capsule on their shell , inviting bacterium to permeate the scale ’ pores . The testis - treat practice session of those French Peter Sellers twelvemonth ago is now legal philosophy throughout the European Union . Commission Regulation ( EC ) No 589/2008 states that egg “ should not be refrigerated before sales agreement to the final consumer . ” The regulation also states that “ nut should not be washed because of the potential damage to the physical barriers , such as the shield , which can occur during or after laundry . Such equipment casualty may favour trans - shell contaminant with bacteria and moisture loss and thereby increase the risk to consumer . ”
U.S. Mandates Cleaning & Refrigeration
Isabelle ’s baffled behaviour upon encounter American supermarket egg is understandable : Commercial egg have been sanitized in the name of public base hit . TheU.S. Food and Drug Administrationmandates that eggs sell commercially to consumer must be washed in water at a temperature at least 20 degrees hotter than the egg itself , then rinse in asolutionof one teaspoonful liquidness chlorine whitener per half cup of water . This airstream - and - rinse requirement slay bacterium such as Salmonella enteritidis from the Earth’s surface of the ball , but it also withdraw the protective bloom . The sanitized eggs must then bethoroughly driedto prevent pathogens such as Salmonella from entering the egg through the wet on its shell pores . A Christ Within finish of mineral crude oil is often applied to commercial eggs to replace the bloom and seal the pores . Thus hygienize and treated , commercially produced ball have a ledge life ofapproximately two monthsif properly stored at 35 degrees F to 40 degree F in the supermarket or your refrigerator .
Isabelle never receive around to trying storebought nut during her halt ; with our girls happily producing , there was no penury to purchase a commercial-grade dozen . We were able to offer Isabelle eggs the way she knew them : sweet from the biddy , bloom intact and full of flavor . We would n’t have them any other way .
