How fresh are eggs in the grocery store?

Ever wonder how fresh the eggs in the grocery store actually are? Think you can only get farm fresh eggs if you buy eggs at a farm or farmers’ market? Think again! You may be surprised to learn it takes just 4 to 7 days to get eggs from the farm to the grocery store in Ontario. (The same is true across Canada.) That's pretty fresh considering the eggs make an important stop on their way to the store.

THE PROCESS During those few days, the eggs are collected on the farm……picked up by a truck from the grading station……taken to the grading station where they are washed, inspected, sized by weight, and packed into cartons……then sent to the grocery store. Some egg farmers in Ontario, such as Marcel Laviolette of St. Isidore, have egg grading stations right on their farms. Most egg farmers send their eggs to a nearby grading station where they are packed along with eggs from other farms. That's why you don't see the individual names of egg farms on the egg cartons, but the name of the grading station that collects and packages the eggs instead, or maybe the name of the grocery store the grading station supplies with eggs. For example, you may have seen cartons labeled with the names Burnbrae Farms or Gray Ridge Egg Farm. These are just a couple of the grading stations in Ontario where our farmers send their eggs.

Ontario egg farmer Marcel Laviolette delivers eggs to a grocery store.

Whether eggs are delivered to the grocery store by a truck from a grading station or by a farmer like Marcel with a grading station on his farm, you can be assured you are getting farm fresh eggs.

Egg farmers Marcel and Carolle Laviolette and family

Marcel is one of eight egg farmer families we're profiling in our new Who Made Your Eggs Today? campaign. You can find out more about him and life as an egg farmer by visiting Marcel's family's page on our new website - getcracking.ca.

HOW ARE EGGS GRADED?

If you want to know more about how eggs are graded, check out this link: * Ontario egg farmer explains how eggs are graded *  

DID YOU KNOW?

• When eggs are graded, the cartons are stamped with a date which is about 35 days from the day of grading.
• A fresh egg (in its shell) will sink in water while an older egg will float.
• If you like to buy eggs directly from a farm, ask the farmer  if the eggs have been kept refrigerated, and if they’ve been washed and graded. If the farmer doesn’t have the proper facilities on his farm, they may not have been. A farmer can sell ungraded eggs, but as the buyer, you should know what you’re getting. Ungraded eggs are not allowed to be sold off the farm.