Oh look, it's another American who thinks Europe is a single cultural entity.<p>I'm European and I've never seen an unrefrigerated egg in my life.
I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have <i>never</i> seen anyone <i>not</i> fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is.<p>Interestingly, the 'official' Dutch storage advice for eggs [1] states they are to be kept in the fridge, because it reduces the risk of salmonella and makes sure they dry out less quickly.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/eieren.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/eieren.aspx</a>
(Northern) China here.<p>Eggs sold unrefrigerated and unwashed. Almost exclusively refrigerated at home. Eggs are invariably cooked thoroughly; the suggestion of a runny or even moist yolk is traditionally met with confused looks and fears of food poisoning.<p>Brooding of poultry is not permitted in most cities/towns/areas with apartments, but considered normal in rural areas (places with gardens).<p>I understand the freshness / verifiability of freshness of a chicken egg is easily determined by how easy it is to peel after being hard-boiled: thin, hard to peel (i.e. without indenting the white) shell is a sign of a fresh egg, thick and easy to peel shell indicates an older egg.
For some background, egg production briefly became a political football in the UK in the 1980s. A government minister correctly but unwisely said that a majority of eggs were infected with salmonella. She promptly lost her job, but behind the scenes, egg production was transformed. So this subject has probably been addressed here in the UK with much greater scrutiny than it may have been elsewhere.
I knew this already, but when I heard this I was amazed about the eggs being washed in the US. I heard this at a factory which creates egg-sorting-machines (If you want to see awesome egg handling machines: check this [1].)<p>For the US they created a special module to wash the eggs. In the Netherlands (where I live) this is unheard off. Even at moba they where like WTF :)<p>Another fun fact is: our eggs are stored outside the fridge in the stores, but in many house holds the eggs are stored in the refrigerator. Most refrigerators have those plastic containers for eggs. Same goes for cheese. Cheese shops store the cheese outside the refrigerator, a lot of households put it in the refrigerator again.<p>What also strikes me, is the fact that in big parts of europe, having so many chickens on a m2 is not allowed anymore. Instead of laying houses we have free-range systems. It's quite funny technology (like washing eggs) has to solve a problem which didn't exist if we respected nature just a bit more.<p>[1]<a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=moba+egg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=moba+egg</a>
In Germany, I haven't seen any refrigerated eggs in supermarkets. But they do have two dates, one after which they should be refrigerated, and one "best before" date. (And like in the UK, they aren't washed).<p>So it seems that refrigeration isn't necessary for the first two weeks or so of an egg's life time, at least if not washed.
The outside temperature in India is roughly double that of any European country.
India - the fifth largest producer of eggs in the world doesnt use refrigeration because... well, there is none.<p>And inspite of all that, there is very little spoilage - nature designed them well.
Unfortunately all the comments erupted into an argument as to the definition of Europe. I live in London, and guess what, London happens to be in Europe. Therefore the English are European.<p>The article is written for a US audience, and does not need to distinguish every European country, but they still did:<p>"It seems that different egg storage conditions come down to the different ways that eggs are farmed and processed in the U.S. compared to the U.K. and other European nations.<p>Read more: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/should-you-refrigerate-eggs-2014-7#ixzz37QjP5YiS"" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/should-you-refrigerate-eggs-2...</a>
As for the eggs, I don't remember ever seeing unrefrigerated eggs in Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Germany and France, but I haven't been in the UK yet.<p>And markets in Slovenia must have eggs refrigerated.<p>Translated from <a href="http://www.uradni-list.si/1/content?id=45033" rel="nofollow">http://www.uradni-list.si/1/content?id=45033</a>
"Eggs must be cooled under 5C, except during transportation when they can be at more than 5C, but no more than 24 hours."
The headline obscures the real point of the article. In the UK we don't need to refrigerate our eggs at the point of production (or spray them with chemicals) because our chickens and eggs are much healthier due to superior and more sanitory production methods than those prevalent in the USA. And so eggs are almost always sold at room temperature and usually refrigerated at home. And, as others have noted, the UK is not synonymous with Europe.
It was a surprise for me when I moved to London from Croatia, when I saw that eggs are not refrigerated in the shops, and most people keep it that way at home too. Back home they are always kept in fridges both in shops and at home, and fridges regularly come with specially designed egg-holders that are sometimes even built into the doors and can't be removed.
I'm English and never refrigerate my eggs. I'm an avid cook and I find eggs stored at room temperature are easier to work with - beating egg whites is easier, fewer broken eggs when frying/poaching (as there is a smaller change in temperature), and cold eggs can make batters and mixtures appear lumpy where the cold makes the fat harden
The ONLY reason I've ever put eggs in the fridge is because my fridge has an egg tray...<p>I tend to put my shopping in similar places as where the supermarket had put them, so things I buy out of the fridge go in the fridge at home, and things I buy at room temperature go into my pantry at home... except for the eggs, they go into the egg tray in the fridge!
In Hungary we either refrigerate them or not. In most houses there is a "cool room" ("kamra" in hungarian) where we keep food which are not so sensitive to the lack of refrigeration. In the dorm we don't have that so I just put the eggs in the fridge.
See also this article from a year ago: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5325540" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5325540</a><p>"Why American Eggs Would Be Illegal in a European Supermarket (and vice versa)"
It would be nice if the article included a comparison of the number of instances of salmonella food poisoning with one system versus the other system.<p>You can describe and argue why one method might be better than the other, but nothing beats hard numbers.
In Finland, eggs are not refrigerated in stores but in the fridges at home, there's usually a specific tray for eggs. People seem to store their eggs at home in the fridge. I sometimes do, sometimes don't.
I'd really like to know the incidence of salmonella poisoning per capita, normalised by the number of fresh eggs sold, to compare how these policies actually affect the thing we're concerned about.