Safe Easter Eggs

“What is my loftiest ambition? I've always wanted to throw an egg at an electric fan.”-Oliver Herford

With Easter nearby, you may be dying, hiding and eating lots of eggs. Here is some egg handling advice from the Alaskan Food Safety Division.

• Keep fresh eggs refrigerated until it's time to cook them. Warm eggs are a breeding ground for harmful bacteria just like meat, poultry, fish, and milk.
• The American Egg Board (AEB) recommends this method for boiling the perfect Easter egg: Place eggs in single layer in saucepan. Add enough tap water to come at least 1 inch above eggs. A tablespoon of vinegar can be added to allow better dye coverage after cooking. Cover pan and quickly bring just to boiling. Turn off heat. If necessary, remove pan from burner to prevent further boiling. Let eggs stand, covered, in the hot water for 15 minutes. Immediately run cold water over eggs or place them in ice water until completely cooled.
• Refrigerate all hard cooked eggs.Whatever the style of preparation, eggs should always be cooked well. The Food and Drug Administration recommends cooking eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm, not runny. This way any Salmonella or other harmful bacteria that may be in the eggs will be destroyed.
• Do not handle eggs excessively, and wash your hands thoroughly when you do handle them, whether in cooking, cooling, dyeing or hiding. The shell of an egg is very porous and will permit bacteria to penetrate.
• Hard cooked eggs actually have a shorter shelf life than raw eggs. Most commercial egg producers lightly coat their eggs with a thin spray coating of mineral oil to close the pores against contamination. Cooking the egg in the shell, however, removes that barrier so that your hard cooked eggs are again prone to outside contamination. Hard cooked eggs may also have small cracks allowing bacteria to enter.
• When hiding Easter eggs, avoid areas where the eggs might come into contact with pets, wild animals, birds, reptiles, insects or lawn chemicals.

Bottom Line
Visit the these websites for more information on eggs!
American Egg Board
USDA Egg Safety
FDA Egg Safety