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Easter egg safety
Here are food safety rules when handling Easter eggs:
- Take eggs straight home from the grocery store and refrigerate them right away. Check to be sure your refrigerator is set at 40 degrees F or below. Don't take eggs out of the carton to put them in the refrigerator - the carton protects them. Keep the eggs in the coldest part of the refrigerator, not on the door.
- Wash your hands thoroughly before you handle eggs. This includes before you cook, cool, dye and hide them.
- Choose eggs with clean, uncracked shells. Discard cracked eggs, because bacteria can easily get in through the cracks.
- Eggs should be hard-boiled. The yolks and whites should be firm. Don't stack eggs on top of one another. Cover with water and bring to a rapid boil. Turn down to medium boil and let eggs boil for 4 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep them in the hot water for 15 to 17 minutes.
- Cool eggs right away by running cold water over them or submerging them in a pan of ice water.
- Once they are cooked, place them in the refrigerator until it's time to decorate them. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule for all perishable foods is that they should be at room temperature for no more than two hours.
- When you prepare the dye, make sure the water is warmer than the eggs. If it's colder, you set up an osmosis situation, where the eggs soak up anything. The shells still have pores no matter how you cook them.
- Make sure you use a food-safe dye. Easter egg dye kits commercially sold in the United States contain food-safe dyes. Regular food coloring is also food-safe.
- Once you've hard-cooked the eggs, place them back in the fridge, and eat them within a week.
To be on the safe side, make a separate dozen of Easter eggs not meant to be eaten. Use these as table centerpieces or egg hunts, or for other uses where they might go unrefrigerated for longer than two hours. For egg hunts, it is best to use the hollow plastic eggs that can store candy or prizes.
If you plan to make an egg tree and you're working with raw eggs, take a long needle or some kind of score and make a small hole in the small end of the egg and a large hole in the larger end. Then either shake the egg over a bowl until the contents come out, or use a baster. But, don't blow on them.
Rinse out the shell. If you plan to use the contents, use right away or beat together the whites and egg yolks and freeze them.
If you really want to be sure about the safety of Easter eggs, decorate them, but don't eat them. This is especially true if you keep them out for decorations or hide them in the house or yard.
Cute, fluffy and dangerous
Here's something else to keep in mind. Parents, if you are thinking of adding a cute, soft, fluffy Easter chick or duckling to go along with your child's Easter basket, think twice. Federal health officials warn that baby chicks sold to children during the Easter season may harbor Salmonella bacteria.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the risk posed by chicks and ducklings may be the highest for children, since Salmonella infections in children may be more severe.
Salmonellosis is a gastrointestinal illness. The symptoms include abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fever. In rare cases, Salmonella can lead to serious - and sometimes fatal - complications in small children, the elderly or those with weak immune systems.
If you want to get a chick or duckling, first know the source and make sure it has been tested for Salmonella. Second, make sure you have the facilities to care for the bird (this may involve knowing a farmer who will take the pet when it gets bigger).
If you want to learn more about eggs, check out the American Egg Board's Web site at www.aeb.org. For more information on egg safety, check out the Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Web site of the USDA.
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External Sources
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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USDA
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This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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