Intense conversation at work today about hard boiled eggs.

Why are hard boiled eggs in the frig section of the supermarket?

Any thoughts?

The only thing I can think of is that I might start looking for another job if I would have to listen to intense discussions about hard boiled eggs

Here's a reasonable explanation.

Short version, American mass farming introduces a need for sanitation of eggs that damages the cuticle (outer chemical protective layer) of the egg, which allows easier permeation of bacteria to the inside of the egg as the shell is semi-permeable. EU has banned the practice, which supposedly forces better farming practice and leaves the cuticle intact, so the egg is much less vulnerable to bacterial invasion.

Are they? I've found them to be in the normal aisle with the raw eggs. But if they're in the fridge, then it's likely down to the cooking method removing the cuticle.

__________________
The red blobs are all mine, you can't have 'em back!!! Bwahahaha!!!

The fridge has replied.

Now let's wait for these users
http://www.englishforum.ch/members/5527-chicken.html
http://www.englishforum.ch/members/17502-egg.html

And we have all we need

Should have said "aren't." Clearly I was to excited when I posted this.

Thanks for the replies, very interesting stuff.

We never refrigerate cooked eggs in the US, just raw ones.

Tom

not just in the USA

Pickle them and they last for years, great with a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a pint of Guinness.

Hard boiled eggs in the supermarket tend to be painted too, though I've no idea if that makes any difference.

you can tell the difference between hard boiled eggs and raw ones because they are painted. swiss person told me hard boiled are always painted.

And here I thought it had to due to the small fridges...

There is a simple way to tell if an egg has been hard boiled or not. You put it on a flat surface and spin it. The boiled egg will spin for a long time because it's solid, and the raw won't because there's liquid inside and one of the laws of physics will slow it down.

Or, the swiss way, create a job to paint the eggs!

I am sure that there is at least one person on these forums who is now going to the fridge to test this...

Not for 1 second.

None at all .

I have an Egg Skelter - we don't keep eggs in the fridge.

From my experience, neither appear to be in a cooled display at the supermarket.

Another way to tell if an egg is fresh or not is to put it into a glass of water. Sinking is bad. I do prefer the spin/tap method to check though.

Hi Forum,
Normally I hard-boil eggs myself, but when I have to be in another city in CH I will not have access to kitchen any more.

It seems there are hard-boiled eggs in Migros and Coop. but I don't understand why it is in the normal-temperature shelves near the raw eggs, does that mean they added preservatives? Also the ones I found also are painted with colors, which make me feel reluctant to eat as I don't want to eat any of those colors during 2 weeks (the time of my trip), I don't understand why it is always painted the whole year even outside religious holidays... Are there any non-painted hard-boiled eggs ? and how they can survive without fridge and preservatives?

this is the one I have found
https://produits.migros.ch/bio-oeufs...in-air-4-x-50g
https://www.coop.ch/en/food/dairy-pr...eces/p/3081812

So where do you buy normal healthy hard-boiled eggs? if possible bio, Thanks

The colour is on the shell, not the egg. I assume you are not going to eat the shell.

Here is an article about them in Switzerland (unfortunately under a paywall)
https://www.tdg.ch/reflexions/art-cu...story/12586482

Basically the painting and the shell thickness are what help preserve these eggs for long periods of time. They're fine and healthy to eat.

I'd never thought about this, but now you point it out it makes perfect sense that the paint is actually functional, not just decorative. It always puzzled me why they did this; I just assumed it was simply to distinguish cooked ones from raw.

Yep. This blew my sister's mind. PhD, public health MD, but Canadian. Paranoid about food safety for obvious reasons. Had the hardest time wrapping her head around the fact that the paint on a cooked egg creates an effective hermetic seal.

Took me a couple of visits to convince her, now she laments them not being available in Canada. Win one for CH!

edit: now I notice it's an old thread. Probably a sign I need more coffee.