Here in the good old U.S. of A., storing your eggs in the fridge is about as American as apple pie and baseball. (By the way, have you ever wondered why Americans refrigerate eggs and Europeans don’t?) But depending on where you place them in the fridge, you could be harming your health, a storage expert reveals.
According to Vlatka Lake, a marketing manager at the storage company Space Station, you should never store these breakfast staples in the plastic egg rack that comes built-in—or as a separate insert with—fridges.
“When it comes to eggs, there is a huge debate on where they should be kept, with some saying in the fridge and others saying on the counter,” she told The Sun. “The general consensus is to store eggs in the fridge, but not in the egg racks commonly found on the fridge door.”
Why this little-known rule? Placing the eggs in the door of the fridge could expose them to fluctuating temperatures as you open and close the door throughout the day, Lake said. That, in turn, causes them to rot faster. You’d be better off storing the eggs on a shelf in the fridge, where the temps will remain fairly constant. These foods, on the other hand, are better off on the counter or in the cupboard.
There you have it! Now that you’re in the loop on this dangerous storage mistake, you’ll want to pay attention to the eggs’ color, too. This is the difference between brown and white eggs and what an egg yolk’s color reveals about its nutrition.