Hi all, Here I am back in Spain again, loving the sunshine, (apparently it's lashing down at home )

I was wondering how safe eggs are here to make mayo and alioli, someone has told me to never use eggs unless they are hard boiled, which is a shame, but I know I can trust you people to give me the best advice.

Personally, I wouldn't worry. Salmonella can enter the chicken & therefore the eggs from birds, rodents, etc so you might say that free range are more likely to contain salmonella.
Chickens can harbour low levels of salmonella anyway, without problems.

You could argue that "battery hens" are freer of salmonella.
It's also linked to how the eggs are processed/stored post laying.

So you pay your money & take your choice in the end.

I would think that they are as safe as the eggs you buy in the UK - since a lot of those come from Spain anyway. It's up to you how safe you think the eggs at home are. Edwina Curry had some interesting words about that, but it cost her her job

That advice is good for the summer when there is for 40c heat, especially if the mayo is going to be hanging around outside the fridge. Thats why the bars in the South use powdered egg

At all other times the eggs are as safe as anywhere else

If you like good eggs then buy free range. Not that much more expensive and taste better

Alternatively, get your own chickens, then you know how fresh your eggs are.

BTW for info, raw eggs should not be chilled at any point in the supply chain.

Why then do most fridges have egg trays?

yes- absolutely true & what I was taught as a trainee restaurant manager (& eventually manager) with Lyons in a former life........

if they have been refridgerated at any point though, you must keep them refridgerated

I have always wondered that myself.............

Good question.

It's possibly OK as long as you use the egg as soon as it hits warm air (which you would be likely to straight from the fridge).

I have also read that if you do keep them in the fridge they should not be kept in the door but at the back.

The reason for all this is that eggs have a protective coating which is soluble in water so that a soon as condensation occurs that protection is lost.

I never knew that.Have always kept them in the fridge.

But they can still pick up salmonella!!

Yes, but they're as likely (or not) to pick up salmonella as any other eggs. And at least if you keep your own chicks you know they're not being fed on a diet of dead animal brains.

...one would assume, of course...

There is always the possibility of an egg being contaminated with Salmonella bacteria during the laying process. Keeping eggs refrigerated slows the growth of the bacteria so that is the preferred storage method. An egg will deteriorate 4 times quicker at room temperature than in a fridge.

Ideally eggs should be kept refrigerated from the point of production through to stores where they should also be kept refrigerated but when did you ever see this happen? It's probably more common in the US.

The reason that it is better to keep eggs away from the door storage is that the constant agitation they get from frequent door opening can thin the whites - that's the only reason.

Spain has more battery farms than most European countries and every year there is a scare or two about Salmonella outbreaks. it is prohibited for spanish restaurants to make their own mayonaisse from raw eggs.

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/08/12/...estigation.htm

One here a few years ago but there was also an outbreak in the UK from spanish eggs last year. We buy ours from a local.