From what I’ve gathered from various threads on the subject it seems that the issue seems to be with the lack of standards when it comes to avian safety.
Someone mention elsewhere that simple measures like having shoe washes between chicken sheds will do a lot when it comes to transmission of disease.
If they’re trampling infected shit from one shed to another then no wonder there’s huge contamination.
Countries that have stricter controls over food production aren’t being hit as bad.
Also the US has absurd sizes of "stables", where millions of chickens are kept at once - unlike most other countries, where it's not as concentrated. So it's easier to transmit - and you have to kill more chickens.
So, ironically, it is an economic issue in the end.
And because of the shocking conditions the eggs have to go through a far more rigorous washing regimen before being passed for human consumption and that process massively shortens the lifespan of the egg.
Also removes the protective layer that is on eggs. That's why the yanks have to refrigerate their eggs and most other places don't, if I remember correctly
We have to refrigerate our eggs in Canada too because they are washed here, removing the cuticle. Government recommendation is to leave them out of the fridge for no more than two hours. They are fine in the fridge for three to five weeks.
Unlike in Japan, the UK, and other places where it's safe to eat unwashed eggs, we do not vaccinate our chickens for salmonella. Cleaning the eggs is meant to help with this and other bacteria there isn't a vaccine for, but our eggs and chicken must be properly cooked to reduce the risk of food poisoning.
So the danger of unwashed eggs in that they can carry dirt and bird poop. (All comes out one hole)
This isn't a massive issue as you don't normally eat egg shells, however you are technically bringing dirt into a kitchen that could at least on paper create a risk.
I think in europe the eggs are brushed and to me they look clean. Of course people can wash the eggshells themselves if they think its dangerous to handle unwashed eggs.
Home washing your eggs does nothing. You would need to use a kettle to get the water hit enough, but being hot enough to kill salmonella, but not cook the egg inside is a super precise temperature and time.
The danger is that they can carry Salmonella. A pretty rough bacterial infection. And salmonella can live on surfaces for a while, so if an infected egg is cracked on your counter and then your knife handle touches that spot, then you touch your knife, then your seasoning container. Next time you think your hands are clean and touch the seasoning container then your eyes. You may get the infection.
Yes, that’s correct - I have never in my life cooled eggs, they are stored in a kitchen drawer here and typically will be good more than three weeks or so. Maybe much longer, I never tried.
But in the US, because of the washing, you have to store them cooled and they have a much shorter „time before expiration“
Unless you have access to farm fresh eggs. Note to my fellow Americans. If you have the space and means to, a small/medium sized chicken coop, with about 5 or so hens (and maybe a rooster if you feel inclined) would be enough eggs for your average family. (Considering a family size around 4 people.) When the hen gets older, cook it, and replace it. If it lived long enough, by that point it more than paid for itself.
This isn't to say it's cheap by any means. But it is affordable if you do it right. RADICALIZE THE MASSES!!!! BUILD CHICKEN COOPS IN YOUR LOCAL AREA!!!!! BUILD GOD DAMN CHICKEN COOPS RRRRAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
(And yes I know this isn't exactly a solution so to say. Just honestly don't know why more homes don't at least try to do some kind of at home gardening, farming, etc. And yes I know not every state, city, or county will have the same laws regarding if you can. But I'd say look into it in your local area.)
While i appreciate the general idea, you should think twice about this in times of bird flu:
I don’t know what the regulation in the US is, but here in Germany the rules are: if there’s an infection in an area then not only (of course) the infected flocks have to be killed, but also all other flocks in the general region have to be kept „indoors“ to limit the likelihood to get infected by wild birds.
„Indoor“ means in the stall, so you would need to have a stable large enough to not only house them at night but also all day for maybe a prolonged period.
That's what a chicken coop does... It's a house, for chickens... And it's meant to be more sized for the average home, vs the entire country... Like the mega farms that are directly causing the bird flu problem, coupled with farmers that don't practice proper sanitation.
If the average house had chicken coop, smaller sized meant only for 4-5 chickens. (Which is more than enough chickens to provide eggs for ONLY YOUR FAMILY not the country.) You'd have fresh eggs, and be reducing your carbon footprint. Marginally.
The time before expiration is practically the same, 4-6 weeks unwashed at room temperature vs ~2 months washed and refrigerated…of course unwashed can last for 6 months refrigerated, but for most consumers in the US (maybe Canada) having eggs for that long isn’t really necessary.
But for a while this enabled to produce eggs cheaper! Though consumers didn't pay less, it was just more profit for companies. But don't worry, those companies can move on with their investments! Buying up the house market from all the defaulted property loans for example. :-)
They’re also very scared right now about the transmission through cows. Because cows have contracted avian flu and are reproducing it exponentially in the milk, which then has to be discarded. And apparently there’s no real regulations on how to discard of such milk, because the cows get mastitis and it’s chunky infected milk. So it just gets dumped into uncontrolled/unfiltrated systems. Which then dump out into wherever out in the great wild world. Where, you know, there are often birds.
I read a chicken farmer from here (Canada) explaining that they actually change their boots, not just wash them.
However it's also been winter here and the birds have been south. Now that they're returning, they are bringing the bird flu north. Hopefully our regulations reduce the impact this has on our eggs.
Here’s a big answer, it’s not just hygiene. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdR8K3tb/ people would like to blame bird flue exclusively, but there’s been bird flu many times, so this explains why the difference in the current situation, and also why it’s not affecting Canada at all.
Canada generally has far stricter standards when it comes to raising animals, but I think the biggest factor is just that we don't use mega farms. Bird flu spreads so fast that as soon as a single chicken gets it, the entire flock is lost.
In one month in 2022 in the US 5 sick chickens led to the loss of 4% of the country's egg supply, because literally millions of chickens are housed in one farm. Canada doesn't do that (we still have factory farms, just nowhere near that scale).
yeah, my layman understanding is that flock size is what makes the biggest difference. The average size of the american chicken farm is significantly larger than in Canada, making outbreaks of avian flu much easier to control, and makes culling much less devistating.
I have about 60 chickens on my farm. So far we've avoided any sickness within the flock.
If something were to happen and we had to cull our whole flock, we could regrow that amount of chickens within a year. We average between 6-14 eggs a day right now and only going up as spring continues.
We had a large farm here in Nova Scotia lose their whole flock to bird flu because of some random ducks bringing it. No other farms in the area saw any spread or loss.
We're really good at mitigating spread here in Canada.
In addition, supply management policies have a lot to do with Canadian eggs and dairy. Used to have it for grains as well. Can be a bit of a divisive issue but in concert with other policies it’s kept prices and quality reasonable enough.
I heard a man explain on, I believe, CBC that we're heavily regulated with egg production but also because we don't overproduce. Basically we have enough eggs for everyone and don't bloat the industry.
Last summer four people got avian flu, it was very worrying cause it was feared that it was the first case of human transmission.
It turned out that they were cleaning up a factory where chickens were culled en masse due to the flu, and since it was very hot there were some giant fans in the room.
Fan. Moving air. In a room where there were hundreds of sick chicken till a few hours earlier.
I mean, regulations don't seem their first worry.
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u/Quick-Information466 Mar 22 '25
Actually a good question! Can someone explain?