Whether it’s a fry up, boiled eggs and soldiers or a vital cake ingredient, eggs are one of the staples of British diets and have been for centuries.
But they are also the source of a lot of arguments, with some people haranguing others for storing eggs in the fridge, while others will wax lyrical about always doing the exact opposite.
A letter writer to the Guardian said: “My microbiology lecturer at university was quite anti-egg refrigeration. He claimed that if the egg was cracked into a frying pan straight from the fridge and cooked until it looked OK, the yolk would only be blood warm and since the yolks at that time were sometimes contaminated by salmonella, this could be harmful.”
Another said via Reddit: “I don’t know about whether they degenerate quicker in the fridge, but it does make them more difficult to cook. A 3 minute egg for example, is cooked for three minutes providing that the egg starts at room temperature. If it has been kept in the fridge, a 3 minute egg would turn out to be far too runny.”
So what is the truth? Should you store eggs in the fridge?
The situation in the UK is slightly different to the USA. Here, hens are vaccinated against salmonella and any egg with the British Lion mark on means that they have been laid by hens innoculated against the nasty disease.
That makes it a lot safer to eat eggs in the UK, and safer to eat soft-boiled or undercooked ones. It also means it’s safe to store them outside the fridge if your kitchen is below 20C and supermarkets sell them on store shelves at room temperature, not refrigerated.
However, experts are recommending that even in the UK, you store them in the fridge when you get home, then take them out 30 minutes before you cook them.
As Lion Mark’s Egg Info says: “Store eggs at a constant temperature below 20C – this maintains freshness and quality. The fridge is the best place to keep them in domestic kitchens.
“Take them out of the fridge half an hour before cooking for the best results, otherwise the sudden change in temperature could crack the shell or lower its binding qualities in baking.
“People who are in good health (i.e. who are not vulnerable to infection) are unlikely to experience food poisoning through consuming UK hen eggs and therefore can eat raw or soft boiled UK hen eggs, or foods containing lightly cooked UK hen eggs.”
So the consensus seems to be: store them in the fridge, in an egg separator, then take them out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking to avoid any issues with cooking them, which could be caused by a sudden change in temperature.
