This article was born out of a news report from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. It was a reminder to me that I have extensive knowledge of industrial egg producers because of my previous work life. Now that I am retired, I can write about such things without fear of retribution for employers and large food producers.
EGG RECALL ISSUED BY THE FDA
The Food and Drug Administration announced the recall of nearly 1.6 million eggs because they could be contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis.
The white- and brown-shelled eggs were produced by Midwest Poultry Services in Texas between June 6 and July 3, the FDA said.
The suspect eggs have sell-by or best-by dates between July 20 and Aug. 17 and were shipped to foodservice companies and retailers in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana and were sold in Kroger stores in Texas, Louisiana and Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi, as well as smaller retail stores.
The cartons have codes P-1950 or 0840962 with a Julian date between 157 and 184, indicating the plant and date information.
The complete list of recalled eggs can be found here.
EGG CARTON CODES:
We all know how to read the expiration date on the outside of the packaging, but those other numbers are important too and can tell you a lot about the eggs you’re taking home.
Somewhere beside or below the expiration date, you’ll see a three-digit code that spans anywhere from 001 to 365. This number correlates to the egg carton’s pack-date on the Julian calendar, meaning 001 is equivalent to January 1 and 365 is equivalent to December 31. The pack date is the day the chicken laid the egg, it was washed, packed and typically shipped out all in the same day. Typically, when shopping for eggs, I ignore the sell by date and look for the highest three digit code, which by law is the freshest.
The third set of numbers on an egg carton typically sit beside the Julian date and begin with the letter ‘P.’ The three or four-digit code that follows ‘P’ will tell you exactly where the eggs have been processed and packaged. For example, a carton with P1160 means that the eggs came from Dows, Iowa and a carton with P2103 means that the eggs came from Turner, Maine. All USDA-graded eggs are required to include a plant processing code, which can be decoded on the official website. The FSIS Establishment Numbers or Florida Statutes (Chapter 583) are for the classification and sale of eggs, which are unrelated to the alphanumeric format of P1330.
The USDA requires egg cartons to print a sell by, use by, best by, or expiration date that is 30 days from or less from the pack-date to let grocery stores know when to pull the cartons from shelves. But the USDA also states that eggs are safe to eat for up to four to five weeks after the pack-date. So, once you figure out the three-digit Julian date, you can determine an expiration date a little bit later than the one printed on the carton.
CAL-MAINE FOODS – AMERICAS LARGEST EGG PRODUCER
In my work life as a commercial and industrial refrigeration technician, I oversaw the refrigeration units at several plants in Central Florida operated by Cal-Maine Foods – the largest producer of eggs in the country. Here are some locations that I worked at….
Notice, these facilities are located in out-of-the-way places in towns that not many people are familiar with. There is a good reason for this. Also notice, you don’t see ANY outdoor areas for the chicks to roam free. What goes on in the plants is fairly horrific. I have listed some FACTS here as I have witnessed these operations myself. Unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures as security is very high for obvious reasons, as you will see.
FACTS ABOUT LOCAL EGG PRODUCERS AND THEIR FACILITIES
- All large chain grocery stores get their eggs from facilities like these. Publix, Egg-Lands Best, Sunny, Aldi, Winn-Dixie. All the eggs are the same, in the packing rooms, which are refrigerated, they simply pack the same eggs into different cartons. One note: Egglands Best gets a special stamp, then is packed into cartons.
- Eggs go through an extensive washing process as soon as they enter the refrigerated area. This FDA requirement is why Americans are forced to refrigerate eggs as opposed to European countries who do not wash eggs. The washing process removes the natural antibacterial cuticle or “protective coating” (also – the “bloom”) and increases the risk for salmonella.
- Each facility has it’s own FDA Inspection office inside the processing building where the FDA conducts random candle tests. Nobody is allowing inside this office except government inspectors. I have seen inside these small rooms but nothing special about it. They simply pull eggs off the wash line and hold them up to a candle and look for disease. Candling is a non-destructive inspection technique that uses a bright light source to examine an egg’s interior and exterior without cracking the shell, primarily to assess freshness, quality, and fertility. The term originates from the historical practice of holding eggs up to a candle flame in a darkened room to see through the translucent shell.
- Free Range and Cage Free Eggs: Fact is all chickens that produce eggs are housed inside gigantic buildings. (See the photos above). Cal-Maine is able to sell free range eggs as long as there is a space for the chickens to get fresh air. Yes, that does happen. In a building the size of two football fields, there is an area the size of a cooler that is enclosed with wire mesh – that is the extent of free range, and I have NEVER seen any chickens inside this cage – it is quite small. As far as “Cage Free” is concerned – not one single chicken is caged in these industrial facilities. These very large buildings house hundreds of thousand of chicks, there simply isn’t enough room to give each little baby his own apartment. The result: Egg producers turn this fact around and use it as a marketing gimmick to sell eggs for more money. Remember, ALL the eggs come from the same buildings regardless of the carton they are placed in.
- There is a steady stream of chickens coming in and out of these industrial facilities. The reason, many of them die inside the hatcheries. So many so that they are removed from each building with front end loaders and dumped into industrial waste containers. Disease is rampant at these places. The facility does a good job keeping everything as clean as possible but at this scale, you can only do so much.
- All of the people that work at these facilities are migrants. And I mean all of them. Mostly Puerto Rican but some Mexican. Nobody speaks English, except for the bosses who direct the movement of wrapped pallets and so forth. Turnover is very high and training doesn’t appear to be that extensive. The workers pretty much show up, clock in and start work, for some it is their first day.
- Cal-Maine doesn’t put much money back into the facility. I was permanently assigned to one facility for some time and could spend all day, every day diagnosing and repairing industrial refrigeration units and cooling towers. The facilities that I have seen look like they were built 50 years ago and the condition of the equipment shows it. The last thing management wants to see is me coming into the office with an estimate of $20,000 to make repairs. You have to sell a lot of eggs to cover that expenses. So the result is inexperienced managers make decisions line item by line item on what will be repaired that month.
Now, there are, of course, smaller farms that produce organic eggs, and various other types. Small organic egg producers are typically family-run farms that raise fewer than 2,000 hens, prioritizing animal welfare, quality, and local distribution over mass production efficiency. Unlike large industrial operations, these producers often allow chickens to roam freely on rotating pastures, forage for natural food sources like bugs and grass, and avoid artificial lighting to maintain natural laying cycles.
WHITE VS BROWN EGGS
Ok, let’s settle this now. There is absolutely no nutritional difference between white and brown eggs. This is a fact. I have spoken to people that manage these industrial facilities and have discovered that people simply have the wrong idea about the differences.
The only difference between white and brown shelled eggs is the color of the shell. There is no difference in taste, nutritional value, quality, or cooking properties.
- Breed: Shell color is determined by the hen’s genetics. Hens with white feathers and earlobes (like White Leghorns) lay white eggs, while hens with reddish-brown feathers and earlobes (like Rhode Island Reds) lay brown eggs.
- Pigment: Brown shells are white shells coated with a natural pigment called protoporphyrin during the final stages of formation.
- Price: Brown eggs are often more expensive because the breeds that lay them are typically larger birds that require more feed to produce the same number of eggs.
- Exceptions: Nutritional differences only occur if the eggs are enriched (e.g., Omega-3) based on the hen’s diet, regardless of shell color.
STORING EGGS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
In America eggs are refrigerated because the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires eggs sold for consumption to be washed, processed and then refrigerated before they come anywhere near a store’s shelves. On the other hand, most European and Asian countries have reached the opposite conclusion, requiring that table eggs not be wet-washed, and also not refrigerated.
Commercially Washed Eggs (US/Canada): Grocery store eggs in the United States and Canada are washed and sanitized, which removes their natural protective coating (the “bloom”). These eggs must be refrigerated and should not be left at room temperature for more than two hours (or one hour if the ambient temperature is above 90°F). Leaving them out longer increases the risk of Salmonella growth, and temperature fluctuations can cause condensation that facilitates bacterial penetration through the porous shell.
Unwashed or Unrefrigerated Eggs (Europe/Mexico/Farm-Fresh): In many European countries and from local farms in the US, eggs are not commercially washed, preserving the natural antibacterial cuticle. These eggs can be stored at room temperature for several weeks to months, as the intact coating prevents bacteria from entering the shell. However, once an egg has been chilled, it must remain refrigerated to prevent sweating and subsequent bacterial growth.
Naturally, I am unable to convince my wife that there are no differences between white and brown eggs, even considering her husband has extensive knowledge about these facilities. The result is, we buy organic, cage free, free range, brown eggs. That’s right, your humble author is paying $6 to $7 a carton for eggs. My philosophy is choose your battles. This is one that I am not going to win. I simply claim victory and depart the field on this one.
Hope this has been helpful and informative.
