The tradition of Easter egg dyeing may return to U.S. households this year, now that prices have moderated from last year’s high of six bucks for a dozen.
This year, the average price for conventionally produced white eggs is about $1.28 a dozen, according to USDA data.
If how an egg-laying chicken lives is important, prices can range from $2.65 a dozen for cage-free brown eggs to $7.17 for free-range organic eggs, with several price points in between.
Regardless of the type of egg, or whether it’s boiled for deviled eggs or for dyeing, food waste is incompatible with the season of rebirth.
But so are salmonella or food poisoning.
Eggs have a limited shelf life before they become sketchy. And you may wonder, is it even safe to eat dyed Easter eggs. And if it is, what’s the point of no return?
Below are your Easter egg questions unscrambled.
If you’re dying Easter eggs and storing them in the refrigerator like any other hard-boiled egg, you can eat them for up to a week as long as you’ve used food-safe dyes or food coloring, according to the American Egg Board.
But if you’re decorating and hiding them, enjoy their beauty but not their taste.
About 1 in every 20,000 eggs is contaminated with salmonella, according to research, and there’s no way to know by looking at the eggs which ones might have the bacteria lurking in them.
If you crack a random egg, the odds that it contains salmonella are extremely low. Most contamination, when it happens, is on the shell, not the inside, and is dependent on hygiene, the environment and other production conditions.
Salmonella bacteria multiply quickly at room temperature, so it’s important to refrigerate eggs as soon as possible after gathering or bringing them home from the store, according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Some important considerations:
In some cultures and Easter traditions, the egg whites and yolks are blown out of the shell. If you’re blowing out an egg, follow these tips from the USDA and Jessi Wohlwend on her DIY blog, Practically Functional:
The USDA frowns on eating eggs used for hunting, but says if the intent is to have the kids eat them, the eggs should be hidden in places that are free of dirt, moisture, pets and other sources of bacteria.
Keep in mind, too, that eggs in the dirt can pick up bacteria from the soil, especially if the shells are cracked.
The total “hide and hunt time” should never exceed two hours, the USDA says. Found eggs should be washed, put back in the refrigerator and eaten within seven days of the date they were boiled.
The agency would rather folks boil two sets of eggs — one for eating and the other for decorating and hiding — or use plastic eggs in the hunt.
Salmonella illnesses are unpleasant but usually not life-threatening — except in some cases of people with weakened immune systems, adults 65 and older, and children 5 and younger, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
In most cases, the illness will last four to seven days after eating the contaminated food, with symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal cramps.
If stored in a refrigerator at 35 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, raw whole eggs in their shells will usually last four to five weeks beyond the pack date, or about three weeks after purchase, the American Egg Board says.
Here are more things to know about egg storage and shelf life:
If kept refrigerated in an airtight container, deviled eggs can last for three or four days. It’s best to leave them out at room temperature for only a couple of hours during mealtime.
If deviled eggs are exposed to temperatures of 90 degrees are higher, discard the leftovers after one hour, according to Southern Living.
Potato salad with eggs and egg salad will last a similar amount of time if stored with the same care.
Want to know how to peel a hard-boiled egg without damaging the whites? Check this out:
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