Serving Eggs

Egg Products Preparation - USDA FSIS Fact Sheets on Egg and Egg Product Safety

• Wash hands thoroughly before handling eggs at every stage in the process (cooking, cooling, dyeing).
• If eggs cannot be colored right away, store them in their cartons in the refrigerator. Be sure to wash them once you are ready to use them.
• Do not color or hide cracked eggs.
• Store the colored eggs in a clean and sanitized container in the refrigerator until hiding time.
• Eat only eggs with uncracked shells.
• Avoid eating eggs that have been out of the refrigerator more than two hours.

If you are planning to use colored eggs as decoration (such as for a centerpiece), and the eggs will be out of refrigeration for many hours or several days, prepare extra eggs. Discard the extra eggs after they have served their decorative purpose.

Eggs are perishable and must be properly stored, prepared, and served. Raw eggs contain a risk of Salmonella, a bacteria that can't be seen, touched or tasted.

Other Egg Food Safety Resources:

Safe Egg Handling and Preparation - American Egg Board

Playing it Safe with Eggs - Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, FDA

Retail/Institutional Food Service Food Safety and Management
Catherine H. Strohbehn, PhD, RD, CFSP
HRIM Extension Specialist
Adjunct Associate Professor
Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa, 50011-1121 USA
cstrohbe@iastate.edu

Consumer and Processing Food Safety and Science
Sam Beattie, PhD
Food Safety Extension Specialist
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Iowa State University Extension
Ames, Iowa, 50011-1121 USA 
beatties@iastate.edu

• Article History
• Revision Date: 3/18/2009