I am raising chickens for egg laying. I plan to sell eggs for a little bit of extra cash when my birds get bigger but I don't know what I should do to wash them. I am licensed in food safety in the state of Indiana but never washed newly layed eggs. I also don't know what I am going to have to get so I can sell these eggs legally once I start getting more. Any answers would be greatly appreciated. My avatar is my silver laced polish Elvis. She is a hen but she looks enough like Elvis to me lol.
I wouldn't wash them, as it would remove the bloom. Some folks have talked about using steel wool to lightly take off any debris stuck to the shell. I think most folks buying off of folks like us don't expect the extreme sterility of commercial eggs.
The only reason I ever get poopy eggs is because a couple of my girls sleep in the nest boxes. Otherwise, non of my eggs ever look any different than the store bought ones (on the outside - much nicer yellow color on the inside!). The eggs that do have any poo on them I gently wipe off with a paper towel and use right away. I personally don't sell or give those particular eggs away. You do not want to wash eggs as it removes the protective bloom which can then lead to bacteria getting into and spoiling the egg.
The egg wash from eggcartons.com is amazing for getting rid of any stains and cleaning them up really good. I wash them because, although you get rid of the bloom, you also get rid of the bacteria on the eggs that could spread to other food in the fridge. No one really thinks about the bacteria staying on the shell and your kid grabbing an egg and now the bacteria is on his hand going into him that way. It's fine and dandy to decide that for your family, but you are selling them and people assume their food is safe, they trust you to keep them safe. And although it is their responsibility, their lawyer will see it differently. You and your family may be immune but one of your customers may get something from them by chance and then you're in trouble! But I'm a worry-wort, so don't take my word as gospel! My in-laws engraved in us all as young-ins that you have to protect yourself from other's stupidity, I think it's better for me to wash them every day and put them in the fridge right away. Good luck!
you see now I understand. I didn't know what the bloom was. I read your post and said, "ahhh.....". Usually the only thing on the eggs is the hay I line the laying boxes with. and i can just brush it off then.
guess my thread got lost lol. My main concern is what is the usda going to tell me to do with them?If I am diing this commercially I never put trust into people to "know" that they need to be washed before they get eaten. I was a manager at Burger King for like 8 years and i'll give you one of the reasons I don't trust people to just know what to do. A newer girl is in charge of making chicken sandwiches that day. She says what goes on a chicken sandwich? I say mayonaise and lettuce. An hour later I get a customer back saying I ordered a chicken sandwich and there is only mayonaise and lettuce on it, no chicken. I guess that goes to show you even though it is in the name you have to be precicely exact with people sometimes. I would rather be safe more than sorry.
UGH. We had an assistant in our office whose duty it was to check the general email account. We were getting emails from her from the account, and she was responding to emails we'd sent, so we figured all was well. On her last day we found out that she had never opened any emails that didn't have HER NAME in the subject line. This was a college kid!!
I personally dont wash my eggs unless they have mud or poo on them. I'm not worried about the bacteria on the eggs becuase I wash my hands after collecting & after using eggs when cooking. I dont know what you'd have to do to sell your eggs commercially though. Probably have your own cartons - not recycled. Some people dont like to use recycled becuase there might be a chance of bacteria in the carton from previous eggs. and you probaly need some stickers that say you should cook the eggs till done blah blah blah, some of the websites where you can order cartons you can also order those types of stickers. I just ordered a case of cartons from McMurray ( I actually ran out of recycled one!!) I got the blank pulp dozen. They're pretty nice!
Try this site http://www.plamondon.com/faq_eggwashing.html . It talks some about USDA regulations and how you have to wash or not wash them to be approved by the USDA.