Growing up my mother always placed our cracked eggshells back into the carton and stuck them back in the fridge, we only threw them away when all of the eggs were used which I am now learning is a terrible thing to do. If you grew up in a household that did this or are perhaps doing this yourself now, you might want to rethink things.
Whether you’re just too lazy to throw them out or saving them for the compost pile, keeping them in the carton might be a really bad idea. It isn’t necessarily safe to keep used eggshells in the carton of fresh eggs. We actually should never put eggshells back in the carton once they’ve been cracked. This is according to the Egg Safety Center has to do with the bacteria present on the outside of and inside of eggs in general. You see, mixing cracked eggs with intact eggs increases the risk of this bacterial transfer.
Houston Press wrote as follows on the topic:
My point exactly. When something is spent, throw it away or compost it. Why keep it hanging around, like some creepy reminder to the other eggs in the carton that this is the fate which awaits all of them?
As a final piece of evidence, I found this compelling argument on a Website that seemed only slightly more credible than Yahoo! Answers (GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME):
“This is probably a tradition that should be ended. There are as many as 8,000 microscopic pores in eggshells. Bacteria and mold can easily find a path into cracked eggs. It may spread bacteria to other eggs, there are natural barriers that protect egg nutrients yet can provide nutrients for bacteria, these protectors are (cuticle, shell, shell membrane and albumen or egg whites). So those old cracked eggs that are still moist area waiting for bacteria to attack this wetness.”
While it might be something you’ve never taken the time to think about it could potentially cause some kind of sickness in your home depending on how things play out. While you may have never experienced any issues thus far but wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry? What do you do with your used eggshells and will you be making any changes after reading this?
I am definitely going to stop placing my empty eggshells back inside of my carton. Sure, if you use all of the eggs then, by all means, go ahead but instead of placing them back in the fridge throw them in the trash along with the carton. Discarding your used eggshells might seem like a bit of a hassle as they can be extremely messy but keeping them around isn’t a good idea, and we all need to be well aware of this.