Current European Union legislation prohibits the washing of Class A eggs. This is in stark contrast to countries such as the United States of America and, more recently Japan, which have embraced egg-washing technology. The emergence in the UK of egg associated Salmonella enteritidis as a significant cause of food poisoning has, combined with the increase in non-cage egg production systems, increased interest in technologies that might improve the microbial quality of the egg. This paper reviews the history of egg washing in the European Union and more specifically its restricted use in the UK and contrasts this with its uptake in the United States among other countries. Similarly the technological advances in egg washing are reviewed, in the context of the underpinning science.

The potential benefits of washing eggs is offset by a historical perception in the European Union that wetted eggs are prone to spoilage and water loss. This study describes the effects of spray jet washing under various processing conditions to shell surface counts of Salmonella and the presence of bacteria in egg contents. Experiments used eggs that were contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis PT4 or Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 before cuticle hardening. Washing of contaminated eggs under optimum conditions resulted in a more than 5-log reduction of Salmonella counts from the shell surface. Salmonella was not isolated from the yolk or albumen of any egg washed by the optimal protocol, suggesting that when properly controlled, egg washing did not cause Salmonella to enter the contents. However, contamination did arise if strict control was not maintained over the wash and rinse water temperatures. Both Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium were shown to enter the egg contents when water temperatures were lowered, indicating that strict temperature control must be maintained in order to prevent the ingress of Salmonella into egg contents. Other washing machine parameters that were investigated did not significantly affect Salmonella entry into the egg contents but influenced shell surface kill levels to varying degrees.

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Welfare and building cost considerations resulted in a commercial farmer setting up a unique system of dry sow housing. Up to 400 sows are housed in a single dynamic group sharing 10 electronic feeding stations.