Enjoying Easter eggs after Easter

While research­ing the longevity of a left­over hard-boiled egg, I dis­cov­ered some very fas­ci­nat­ing facts. This can be inter­est­ing news because a week after Easter many peo­ple may be in a quandary over the safety of the col­ored eggs still in the refrigerator.

By the way, the fresher a hard-cooked egg is when it is cooked, the harder it may be to peel. The older the egg when it was cooked, the eas­ier the peel­ing is removed.

Those col­ored hard-cooked orbs that dec­o­rated the Easter bas­kets are still con­sid­ered safe if they were kept out of refrig­er­a­tion at room tem­per­a­ture for no more than two hours. Some peo­ple leave them out all day and con­sume them with­out any prob­lems, but that prac­tice is questionable.

Yes, there are sto­ries of peo­ple leav­ing Easter eggs on the counter for days with­out adverse affects. Peo­ple even brag about hav­ing an iron stom­ach. Those at high­est risk of a food­borne ill­ness are the very young and the very old. Tod­dlers and the elderly do not have the strong immune sys­tem of a healthy adult.

If there are any eggs found in the gar­den or under the couch fol­low­ing the Easter egg hunt, throw them away. Eat­ing them even if they were imme­di­ately chilled after locat­ing them can increase the risk of sal­mo­nella con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. The symp­toms of this food­borne ill­ness include fever, abdom­i­nal cramps, diar­rhea, nau­sea, vom­it­ing, chills, headache, mus­cle pains and bloody stools. Even though these con­di­tions are not life threat­en­ing, they can cause dehy­dra­tion, espe­cially in the young and elderly. Don’t take a chance with hard-cooked eggs not kept at safe temperatures.

Usu­ally refrig­er­ated hard-boiled eggs are safe to eat for a week after cook­ing them, no mat­ter what color they were dyed on the out­side. Fresh eggs have a much longer shelf life. Once they are hard-cooked, seven days not only allows for max­i­mum food safety but also opti­mal nutri­ent value.

Hard-cooked eggs are more sus­cep­ti­ble to spoilage than uncooked eggs because the cook­ing process removes a nat­u­rally occur­ring waxy pro­tec­tive layer from the shell. When eggs are boiled the melt­ing of this layer leaves the pores in the shells open for bac­te­ria to enter and con­t­a­m­i­nate the eggs more easily.

For the same rea­son, do not eat cracked hard-cooked eggs. The risk for ill­ness increases and if a cracked hard-cooked egg is com­bined with oth­ers that were not cracked, they can all become contaminated.

Many peo­ple think that a green ring around the yel­low yolk of a hard-cooked eggs means that it is spoiled. On the con­trary, that usu­ally means the egg was over­cooked and the green color is a reac­tion of nat­u­rally occur­ring sul­fur and iron in the egg to react on the yolk’s sur­face. Some­times the green color can be traced to a high level of iron in the water used to boil the eggs. Although they may look unap­pe­tiz­ing, green eggs are safe to eat.

A large egg has about 70 calo­ries and is an excel­lent source of pro­tein, with about 6 grams per egg. There are approx­i­mately 5 grams of fat in an egg, with 3.5 of them unsat­u­rated, and they are all con­tained in the yolk. Enjoy hard-cooked eggs.

Bob­bie Ran­dall is a cer­ti­fied dia­betes edu­ca­tor, and a reg­is­tered, licensed dietit­ian. She super­vises a dia­betes self-management train­ing pro­gram at Aultman-Orrville Hos­pi­tal, Orrville. Con­tact her at bobbie.randall@aultmanorrville.org or 330–684-4776.

Posted by Bobbie Randall on Apr 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.