Washing eggs?

[LoveHuevos]

I called to see what the rules are for selling my eggs. I already sell some to friends just by word of mouth, but our pullets should start laying in the fall and we'll have about a dozen eggs per day then. One of the rules was to wash the eggs. I thought I read somewhere that you're not supposed to wash the eggs because they have a protective coating around them. Now I'm confused.

 

[austinandkara]

That is true, there is a protective coating on the egg so you shouldn't wash it until you are about to eat it. This way, the egg will stay fresh for a longer period of time. If there is any feces or dirt on the egg I would wash that off. When you sell them, tell the people that they need to wash them before eating them and explain about the protective coating thing.

 

[Judy]

Sometimes customers don't want to buy dirty eggs. Commercial operations are required to wash them. Opinions vary. I wash only dirty eggs, but eat them next.

This gets discussed here regularly.

 

[Fred's Hens]

All my customers want clean eggs. They get them within three days of being laid. They eat them within a week to ten days. They simply will not accept dirty eggs. It is just the way it is.
No, washed eggs don't "last" as long as unwashed, but washed eggs that get used within 2 weeks of lay, such as in our case, the matter is irrelevant.

 

[LoveHuevos]

When you say, "clean" eggs, do you mean washed? We don't give dirty eggs to the customers - The ones with dirt, poop, hay, etc. - We keep them for ourselves and wash them just before we eat them. Other than that, we don't wash the customers eggs but I could tell them that they can wash them right before they eat them.