How old are eggs we buy in the stores?

European and American laws about eggs are very different.

But, how old are store bought

eggs in the States?

I found this very interesting blog article, surfing the web, so I’m sharing it with you.

How Old is the Average Supermarket Egg? | Fresh Eggs Daily®

https://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2016/01/how-old-is-average-supermarket-egg.html

In this article you can read:

Q: How old are the eggs being sold in the grocery store?

A: It’s just about impossible to tell, but they could be up to 2 months old. Yup, really.

By law, an egg can be sold for up to 30 days after the date it was put in the carton. Yes, that says ‘put in the carton’, not laid or collected, but packaged. And I’m told (although I can’t find anything official in writing to confirm this) that a farmer has up to 30 days to package an egg after it’s laid. So that means a commercially sold egg can be two months old by the time you buy it.

What about Italy?

I couldn’t find a specific blog article so I checked the Carabinieri website

Le Uova http://www.carabinieri.it/cittadino/consigli/tematici/giorno-per-giorno/andiamo-al-supermercato/le-uova

An interesting section says:

. la data di scadenza, obbligatoria, non può essere posteriore al 28° giorno successivo alla data di deposizione per il consumatore, non può essere posteriore al periodo massimo di 21 giorni dalla data di deposizione per il venditore );

. Expiration day, which is mandatory for eggs, can’t be later than 28 days from the egg being laid. Actually eggs can be sold in the stores only within 21 days from the egg being laid down but the client, that bought the eggs before they were retired by the store, can eat them up to the 28th day.

What a big difference!

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