In recent years, an egg that can be "eaten raw" has appeared in some offline supermarkets and e-commerce platforms, and it is favored by some consumers, and sales have even doubled.
In a supermarket in Beijing, the reporter saw a freezer placed with four brands of edible eggs, "safe, delicious, nutritious" is the publicity selling point, the product description: the introduction of Japanese standards, no salmonella, no pesticide residues, heavy metals and other information is also particularly prominent, and ordinary eggs are different, these eggs have a suitable raw food shelf life, and all need to be refrigerated and preserved. Less than two hours after the reporter came to the store, a six-piece egg with a price tag of 12.9 yuan was the first to sell out.
From the price point of view, the price of ordinary eggs at room temperature is generally around 1 yuan per egg, while the single price of eggs that are mainly "edible raw" is generally more than 2 yuan to 3 yuan. The maximum spread between the two reached as much as 3 times.
Jingdong data shows that in 2021, the sales of edible eggs increased by 116% year-on-year. Hema data also shows that in 2021, the sales of edible eggs have accounted for 40% of the egg category, compared with the previous year, the growth rate reached more than 10 times.
The reporter explores the production line of raw eggs
Raw eggs, although there is fun to taste, but for consumers, first of all, to ensure health and safety, then this raw eggs, compared with ordinary eggs, what is the difference in the production process?
In the production base of edible eggs in Guangxi Beihai, the breeder Luo Chuangwei is conducting daily inspections of the chicken coop, he told reporters that the humidity, temperature and light in the chicken coop have strict control, in order to prevent the pathogen from being brought into the coop, he has to disinfect the whole body, bathe, and change clothes every time to enter the coop. Relying on a highly automated production line, there are more than 90,000 chickens in the chicken coop, and he is the only one to manage it.
The company's research and development director told reporters that the production of salmonella-free eggs, the most critical is to select chicken breeds to ensure sterility at the source. They choose a breed of layer chickens with strong adaptability, high egg quality and small fishy taste as ancestral chickens, and each batch of chicks produced by ancestral chickens must pass three salmonella tests to become laying hens. In addition, they regularly conduct Salmonella sampling of environmental samples and eggs in the chicken coop.
Zhang Qionglian, R&D director of a raw egg company: There are two ways for chickens to be infected with Salmonella, the first is through its mother, that is, vertical transmission; the second is through exogenous ingestion, such as water for chickens to drink, feed to eat or living environment.
Raw eggs can be eaten with varying standards of implementation
Experts recommend cautious raw food
"Raw eggs" because of the relatively high price, but also welcomed by some consumers, attracted a lot of domestic egg companies into the game, but the reporter found that the current raw eggs production standards are not uniform, consumers in the choice of eating, or pay attention to some.
The reporter observed the packaging of more than a dozen kinds of raw eggs sold on the market and found that the implementation standards of each brand are different, some of which implement corporate standards, and some brands implement national standards.
Professor Yang Yanjun of the Food College of Jiangnan University: At present, there are no clear provisions on salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria in the standards of eggs and egg products in our country, which leads to some consumers eating eggs that are not fully cooked, such as eggs, hot spring eggs, one-sided frying, etc., which may also contain salmonella, which will cause certain harm to the safety of the human body.
Experts said that if you want to completely eliminate the risk of pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, it is still recommended to eat eggs after cooking, in addition, from a nutritional point of view, the protein absorption rate of raw eggs is low, for children, pregnant women and other people who are particularly in need of nutrition, it is still recommended to eat cooked eggs.
Zhao Min, director of the Nutrition Department of the Sixth Medical Center of the Plaster General Hospital: Eating raw eggs for a long time may cause a lack of biotin, because raw eggs contain substances absorbed and utilized by biotin, which will be destroyed after cooking.
Source: CCTV Finance
Review: Bai Ying, Wang Haiying
Editor-in-chief: Li Ruoyan
Editor: Lv Jing