![\"little_girl_washing_eggs\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.plamondon.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/little_girl_washing_eggs.jpg\")
<\/a>It’s okay by\u00a0me! Some jurisdictions\u00a0have laws forbidding <\/em>you to wash\u00a0any eggs that you’re going to sell. Some have laws requiring<\/em> that you wash any eggs you’re going to sell. I’ll go into that further on.<\/p>\nBut face it, some eggs you collect from your flock will be too dirty to use unless you wash them first. You can always throw them away (and with the very worst ones, that’s often your best bet), but you’ll have plenty of eggs that are too dirty to use but not dirty enough to throw away.<\/p>\n
2. Wait, aren’t eggs protected by a mystical-magical “bloom” that is removed by washing?<\/h2>\n
But yes, it’s true that washing removes this slime layer. But the\u00a0only real-world\u00a0significance of the bloom is that washed eggs lose moisture a little faster than unwashed eggs.\u00a0Producers used to put a very light spray of mineral oil on the eggs to reduce evaporation. As far as I can tell,\u00a0no one can tell the difference if they keep their eggs in the refrigerator, and maybe not if they keep their eggs on the shelf.<\/p>\n Once, as\u00a0an experiment, I kept some washed and unwashed eggs in my basement, unrefrigerated, for six\u00a0weeks. I couldn’t tell the two groups apart. Both had declined to Grade B quality (runny whites, fragile yolks) but were still edible.<\/p>\n There are only a few points you need to remember when cleaning\u00a0eggs:<\/p>\n The take-aways are:<\/p>\n Buying a commercial egg washer\u00a0isn’t to everyone’s taste (or budget), so here’s an egg-washing technique that ought to be acceptable everywhere in the US, even by the strict USDA standards:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The simplest method of egg washing is as follows, and it’s also sanitizer-free:<\/p>\n That’s it. The water is hot enough to sanitize the eggshells without added chemicals. This method doesn’t work as well as one where the eggs are wiped, such as in the Aquamagic <\/a>(using rotating brushes) or the watering-can technique (wiping by hand with paper towels), but it ought to be okay on eggs that are only lightly soiled. It’s certainly simple, provided you have an adequate supply of very hot water.<\/p>\n CAUTION:<\/b> 160 \u00b0F water is hot enough to scald you, and splashing\u00a0yourself is not an experience you’ll forget in a hurry.<\/p>\n There are all kinds of commercial egg-cleaning machines, some quite enormous, washing eggs on an industrial scale. Other egg washers are quite small. And\u00a0you can build your own small egg washer without much difficulty.<\/p>\n For wet-process egg cleaning, we can divide the field into immersion washers and spray washers.\u00a0Immersion washers are cheap. Spray washers are better, but more expensive: they handle a lot more eggs per hour and get the eggs \u00a0cleaner.\u00a0There’s also \u00a0dry egg cleaning, using something like sandpaper, which I’ll discuss later on.<\/p>\n<\/a>The “bloom” (or “cuticle”) is a mucous film on the outside of the eggshell. It’s nothing to get excited about, even if you’re into mucous.<\/p>\n3. How do I wash dirty eggs?<\/h2>\n
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4. How should I wash eggs by hand?<\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/a>5. Can I avoid using a chemical sanitizer?<\/h2>\n
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6. What kinds of egg washers exist?<\/h2>\n