About 60 percent of the eggs sold in the United States come from processors who participate in USDA’s grading service, voluntarily paying to have their eggs graded so the eggs can display a “USDA Grade A” or “AA” shield on their cartons. The grade is based on qualities that can be observed in the shell, yolk, and egg white when the egg is inspected with lights and other specialized equipment. Specifics on egg-grading criteria can be found here.
Egg processors who participate are required to spray-wash their eggs with warm water and use a sanitizing rinse and air-drying techniques specified by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
Yeah, as an American I’m surprised it’s only 60 percent. Pretty much anything I’ve ever seen available to me has been washed/graded/refrigerated. Maybe farmer’s markets? But no way do they have 40 percent market share. I’ve occasionally had friends with coops so I’m not unfamiliar with having shelf stable eggs, though.
At this point I think the thing that’d freak out Americans the most is the whole thing about not needing to refrigerate. It’s ingrained now.
One of the funniest food things I’ve seen was an interview with a French chef, who was talking about cheeses. I wish I could remembeg it well enough to quote him, but he was basically saying, in Europe, you don’t refrigerate cheese. Cheese has cultures, it is a living thing. Conversely, in America, cheese is dead, and we put it in the morgue, in little body bags.
Edit I found it! It was Clotaire Rapaille, and he’s a market researcher, not a chef. The quote came from a 2003 Frontline episode on advertising and marketing:
For example, if I know that in America the cheese is dead, which means is pasteurized, which means legally dead and scientifically dead, and we don’t want any cheese that is alive, then I have to put that up front. I have to say this cheese is safe, is pasteurized, is wrapped up in plastic. I know that plastic is a body bag. You can put it in the fridge. I know the fridge is the morgue; that’s where you put the dead bodies. And so once you know that, this is the way you market cheese in America.
I started working with a French company in America, and they were trying to sell French cheese to the Americans. And they didn’t understand, because in France the cheese is alive, which means that you can buy it young, mature or old, and that’s why you have to read the age of the cheese when you go to buy the cheese. So you smell, you touch, you poke. If you need cheese for today, you want to buy a mature cheese. If you want cheese for next week, you buy a young cheese. And when you buy young cheese for next week, you go home, [but] you never put the cheese in the refrigerator, because you don’t put your cat in the refrigerator. It’s the same; it’s alive. We are very afraid of getting sick with cheese. By the way, more French people die eating cheese than Americans die. But the priority is different; the logic of emotion is different. The French like the taste before safety. Americans want safety before the taste.
https://tellus.ars.usda.gov/stories/articles/how-we-store-our-eggs-and-why
FYI multiple studies have found that there is no safety benefit to washing. It just looks nicer, and people think it’s safer.
Thanks, that confirms my understanding, although I’m surprised the participation rate is as low as it is. That’s really interesting, thanks!
Yeah, as an American I’m surprised it’s only 60 percent. Pretty much anything I’ve ever seen available to me has been washed/graded/refrigerated. Maybe farmer’s markets? But no way do they have 40 percent market share. I’ve occasionally had friends with coops so I’m not unfamiliar with having shelf stable eggs, though.
At this point I think the thing that’d freak out Americans the most is the whole thing about not needing to refrigerate. It’s ingrained now.
One of the funniest food things I’ve seen was an interview with a French chef, who was talking about cheeses. I wish I could remembeg it well enough to quote him, but he was basically saying, in Europe, you don’t refrigerate cheese. Cheese has cultures, it is a living thing. Conversely, in America, cheese is dead, and we put it in the morgue, in little body bags.
Edit I found it! It was Clotaire Rapaille, and he’s a market researcher, not a chef. The quote came from a 2003 Frontline episode on advertising and marketing: