What is the difference between store and home eggs. How to check them for freshness when buying and at home in various ways. The degree of their freshness, as well as the rules for selection and storage. The freshness of the eggs is the most important factor to look out for when buying them. This is a very popular product, because they are easy to prepare, very nutritious, and contain many components valuable for the body. But all this applies only to fresh, rotten ones are not edible and can harm health. Checking eggs for freshness is quite simple and direct at the time of purchase and at home.
What are the differences between store and home eggs
The stores usually sell eggs obtained from poultry farms. Eggs from poultry kept by a private owner are called domestic eggs. Both the first and the second are a natural product, and those and others can be dietary and canteen.
The difference is as follows:
- Taste qualities … Due to the differences in the diet and the nature of the maintenance of poultry and factory poultry, the taste of the eggs they produce also differs. Domestic chickens are in the fresh air every day under the rays of the sun, communicate closely with the rooster, eat natural food: grain, worms, grass. Factory birds constantly live in special cells without access to individuals of the opposite sex, receive special balanced feed and vitamins. Therefore, domestic eggs are usually fertilized, and their taste is richer.
- Nutritional value … Both those and other eggs contain many enzymes, proteins, amino acids and vitamins that are beneficial to the human body.
- Harmlessness … The health and hygiene of the poultry at the factory is strictly monitored, they are vaccinated against diseases. The health and hygiene of poultry is entirely on the conscience of its owner. So those who want to buy homemade eggs should attend to finding a bona fide seller who can be trusted. On the other hand, it is not known what kind of additives and antibiotics were fed to factory chickens and how this will affect the consumer who ate their products. It is expensive for a private trader to buy "chemistry", so homemade eggs are safer in this regard, especially for allergy sufferers.
- Shell color … White or brown eggs can be found in both domestic and factory birds. But since products are usually sorted in large-scale production, factory eggs can be distinguished by the uniformity of the shell color. For homemade eggs, all shades from cream to coffee brown can be present on one tray.
- The size … Private owners keep birds of different ages on the farm. And since the young ones lay small eggs, and the old ones - large, then the owner's tray is usually inconsistent. But the factory products are calibrated by special machines in size.
- Yolk color … It is believed that the yolks of homemade products are bright yellow, bright orange, and the color of the yolks of eggs from factory poultry is less saturated. But more recently, a factory product also boasts this yolk color - due to special additives in poultry feed.
- Smell … Just like the smell of hospital medicinal scent differs from the homely, cozy scent of baking, so does the smell of factory eggs differ from the smell of homemade eggs. In the former - sterility and emptiness, in the latter, depth and saturation are felt.
- Price … It is customary to pay more for exclusiveness and quality. Therefore, shop stores are cheaper than home ones. Moreover, due to the fact that egg-laying in poultry occurs mainly in the warm season, domestic eggs in the cold period become much more expensive.
It is interesting! Why do stores only sell chicken and quail eggs? Because it is these birds that most often fly, 10 times more often than, for example, geese and ducks. But the latter, by the way, are 5 times more likely to suffer from salmonellosis. The safest quail in this regard. They are the smallest, and even ostrich ones, the largest that you can buy - the most nutritious, they contain 5 times more phosphorus, potassium and iron than chicken. An omelet made from a kilogram ostrich egg can feed the whole family!
Egg freshness
By the degree of freshness, dietary and table eggs are distinguished. Here are their differences:
- Diet eggs … This is the freshest product. The bird took it down no more than one week ago. In stores, such eggs are marked with the letter "D" in red, but it is difficult to find them on sale. Usually such products are obtained from domestic chickens or bought in the market or on a small farm. They are the tastiest. And the best ones are those that were demolished 3-4 days ago and ripened in a dark place at room temperature. All enzymes of such eggs are in excellent condition and are easily absorbed by the body. The white and yolk are firm, thick, do not spread over the pan, but lie compactly on it. Diet eggs have only one drawback: boiled, they are disgustingly peeled, the protein sticks to the shell and falls off in pieces.
- Table eggs … Dietetic ones become canteens as soon as 8 days have passed since the bird took them down. These are the ones that are mainly sold in stores. They are marked with a blue "C". The shelf life of table eggs is 25 days. They are great boiled for salads as they are easy to clean. They spread well in a frying pan, and the older, the larger the diameter.
It is interesting! In case of allergies, it is recommended to eat dietary eggs, as their sensitizing properties are the least. The older the egg, the greater the risk for the allergic person.
How to check eggs for freshness upon purchase
An ideal store will bring an ovoscope to your request to check the freshness of the eggs on sale. With this device, you can see what the size of the air chamber is inside the product, and understand if it is of high quality. But you can do without an ovoscope. Use the following methods to check if the egg is rotten or not.
Visual inspection
Even outwardly, an attentive customer can determine the freshness of eggs.
A suitable product can be distinguished from an unsuitable product:
- In the shell … If it is rough, matte and hard, the egg is fresh. A soft shell with dark spots (traces of microbial growth) means that it is rotten. A smooth, glossy shell with a blue sheen signals that it is old and may be spoiled. True, it happens that sellers wash and even rub the surface of the eggs to give them a presentation. But it is better not to take risks, such "soaked" products will be worse stored. By the way, make sure that the shells of all the eggs in the tray are uniform. But if matte interspersed with glossy, this indicates that the seller has put an older product on the fresh one and cannot be called conscientious.
- By smell … It is unlikely that eggs that emit a stench will be put up for sale, but, nevertheless, this sign cannot be ignored. Fresh product does not smell like rotten. Its shell gives off a scent of lime. The older the egg, the more it absorbs the smells of the environment and loses its calcareous aroma.
- To the light … You can test the egg with a bright lamp (at least 100 W) or a powerful flashlight. This method is also called candling (from the English "candle"), because in the old days the product was shone through with their help. The eggs at the blunt end have a so-called scare, an air chamber. The larger this chamber, the older the product. For dietetic eggs, such a puga should be up to 4 mm in size, and for canteens - no more than 9 mm. The yolk of a fresh product is in the center or slightly displaced if it is near the edge of the shell or is blurred so that the location is difficult to determine - you have spoiled products in front of you. The presence of an embryo or a clot formed into a ring is unacceptable. Dark spots signal multiplying microbes, it is these eggs that can be poisoned. A pink tint in a squirrel and a red-orange in a yolk happen when it enters the blood chamber, this is not a harmful product for health, but its benefits are minimal.
Remember! Do not break all eggs into the same bowl or into a common bowl with any other dish ingredients unless you are sure of their freshness, so as not to spoil good foods with rotten ones. Better to double-check one at a time in a separate cup.
Shaking
Eggs unsuitable for consumption can be identified simply by picking them up, shaking them or twisting them. Namely this way:
- Weighing … If there is a scale nearby, weigh the egg. Copies heavier than 75 g belong to the highest category. The shell may be marked with the letter "B". Selected eggs (marked "O") weigh from 65 to 75 g. The eggs of the first category weigh from 55 to 65 g, the second - from 45 to 55 g, and the third - from 35 to 45 g (marked with numbers "1", "2 "And" 3 "respectively). By weighing the product, you can see if the weight matches the label. If, for example, a selected egg weighs less than it should be, this suggests that you have a marriage in front of you: it has become easier because it has dried out, water has evaporated from it. Having learned the weight of an egg, you can also decide what is better to buy - a large one from an old chicken, in which there is more water but less nutrients, or a small one from a young one - these are the most nutritious. It is believed that the best and most balanced composition is in category 1 eggs.
- Shaking … This is how you can easily define "chatterbox". If you feel its contents dangling inside the egg, it means that you have a rotten product in your hands. This happens when the egg has dried out during storage, and the inner shell has separated from the shell.
- Spinning … To recognize the freshness of eggs in this way, you need to be able to scroll a rotten egg on a flat surface at least once. So you can compare: rotten will make more turns, that is, it turns longer than fresh.
Please note! Sometimes in stores there are eggs with different markings. If the label says "Premium", it means that the chicken keeping was strictly controlled and was almost perfect. If they grow up like home, free-roaming and eating natural food, their eggs are awarded the Organic or Bio-Egg label. "Fortified" means that the food contains more nutrients such as selenium or iodine. It is impossible to verify the accuracy of this information. Therefore, it is better not to flatter yourself, there is a high probability that this is all a marketing gimmick.
How to check eggs for freshness at home
At home, more informative methods of checking the freshness of the product are available, and all the manipulations take a little time. So, let's look at how to check eggs at home.
Simple ways
In order to prevent poisoning and not spoil the taste of the food, it is recommended that you always check the eggs before using them, even if in principle you are sure that you bought a fresh product.
It can be done:
- Breaking an egg … Before adding a raw egg to any other food, break it into a separate container and inspect it. A fresh one will have a fluffy, not very spreading protein, like a jelly, with a thin, moist and more liquid surface layer. The yolk will rise above the protein. If the layers of protein do not differ, and the yolk is flat, this means that the product is of low freshness. But you can eat such an egg. An unpleasant smell from an egg is a sign of the multiplication of microbes, this should not be eaten even after heat treatment, you can get poisoned.
- Boiled an egg … A quickly and smoothly peeling hard-boiled egg with a dent on the side (the place where there was air between the shell and the membrane) signals that the product is table food and has been stored for some time. The freshest boiled egg is disgusting to clean, much more difficult than the stale one, the place of the air bag is not noticeable. Even its "bathing" in cold water after boiling water will not make it easy to clean.
- With water … A very reliable method that allows you to accurately determine the freshness of the product. Before checking eggs in water, it is worth remembering that the older it is, the more scarecrow in it, that is, more air, and the better it will swim. Pour water (at least 10 cm) into a container and lower the wet specimen there. The fresh dietary product will remain lying horizontally. If the egg came off the bottom with a blunt end, this means that the bird laid it more than a week ago and in front of you is a table product. The product that has floated to the surface is at least a month old, it is spoiled.
Sometimes experienced housewives, giving advice to young people on how to check the freshness of eggs in water, mistakenly advise adding salt, ordinary or sea salt, to the liquid - 0.5 tsp. for 0.5 liters of water. In fact, there is no difference whether it will be in the water or not. The egg pops up due to the increasing scare and microorganisms that have got inside, which start putrefactive processes, as a result of which gases are released, which contributes to an increase in the "buoyancy" of the specimen.
Complex methods
You can test chicken eggs in more sophisticated ways. For example, like this:
- Measuring the shell temperature … Wash the egg well, preferably with soap. Rinse and dry to keep it completely dry. Then touch the tip of your tongue to the sharp and blunt ends alternately. If stupid seems to you to be definitely warmer than spicy, that's good, then you are dealing with a fresh product. But if you do not feel the difference and the shell temperature seems exactly the same from either end, then the egg is of considerable age.
- Using ultraviolet light … Shine the specimen under ultraviolet rays. The bright red color of the insides will indicate that it is fresh. The paler the color, the older the product. An egg unfit for food under ultraviolet rays will appear purple inside, and may also have dark spots.
Attention! Do not forget to look at the expiration date indicated on the package or marked on the egg itself. If you have a choice, try to buy copies stamped on the shell, because the sticker on the package can be re-glued.
Egg storage rules
Always wash eggs before use and hands after touching this product. If you are making a dish using raw eggs, take exclusively fresh, preferably quail. Boil them for at least 5 minutes after boiling water.
The following guidelines will help you keep your purchased eggs fresh and avoid food poisoning from spoiled food:
- Storage temperature … It is best to store them in a cool, dark place. The most suitable option is a refrigerator. The fact is that at temperatures below 6 ° C, Salmonella bacteria do not multiply. But at room temperature, this process is accelerated, and subsequent cooling will not correct the situation.
- Shelf life … Table eggs are stored for no more than 25 days, provided that there is no damage to the shell. Cracked product should be used immediately.
- Storage features … To keep the egg fresh for a long time, you must store it with the blunt end up. It is also necessary to ensure the integrity of the natural protective layer on the shell, which prevents air from entering. That is why it is not recommended to wash the product if you are going to store it for a long time, since water washes away the protection. It is also required to ensure a constant temperature during storage of eggs, its drops will shorten the shelf life.
Please note! Eggs boiled for Easter in large quantities can be stored in the refrigerator for a week, and at room temperature - no longer than four days. The preservation will improve if you lubricate their shells with sunflower oil. This will close the pores and prevent air from entering the product. How to check eggs for freshness - watch the video:
By adhering to the above tips and carefully checking the eggs for freshness at the time of purchase and immediately before use, you can protect yourself and your family from food poisoning.
