About Mary Hughes-Cole Expertise I can answer questions about food preparation and storage, kitchen and equipment sanitation and food spoilage. Food and beverage expiration dates, and the use and safety of certain herbs, spices and food additives are within my area of expertise.
Experience I have run a kitchen for nearly fifty years. I have a perfect track record at home; my claim to fame is, my cooking has never made anyone sick. In addition, I have managed several boarding homes where I maintained the kitchen and cooked for many people.
Question How long may hard boiled eggs, in the shell, be stored in the refrigerator?
Answer Hello Dan,
How long anything keeps in your refrigerator can depend on many factors they are as follows.
How fresh the food was when purchased
How long it was out before refrigerating
How long it was out before cooking
How long it was out before storing after cooking
How clean your house is as all the air that circulates in your refrigerator is the same air as in your house
How clean your refrigerator is and that includes how well the back is kept free of dust the freezer cleaned and how often it is cleaned, and whether or not you keep borax and soda in the refrigerator either in the bottom in drawers or cups to kill orders which come from bacteria.
It all has to do with temperatures, bacteria and air, as bacteria is not spontaneous but depends on air to grow. On the other hand, molds and fungus depend on moisture and dampness.
If all these things are kept under control, kept in a reasonable states of cleanliness the food purchased and brought home properly by using ice chest for dairy, juice, eggs, meat and produce; if your is home kept clean, including the refrigerator and everything done properly, then I would say a week would be the longest time that I personally feel safe eating an egg no matter how hard it was cooked or what conditions it was cooked under. I would consider the cooked egg just as venerable as a raw egg. This may surprise you but according to some personal research I have done the stores have been known to keep eggs for as long as six months before selling. They do this by using needles to inject preservative into them. I do not know if the effectiveness of this preservative is affected by cooking the egg.
Personally I purchase cage free AA brown large eggs as they are the best and the only one my cats will eat. My father was a chicken farmer and I know a lot about real eggs and chickens. My grandmother was a dairy farmer and my father worked for her when he was younger. My grandfather was a cotton purchaser and inspector so there is a lot of information passed on to me that I rely on today.
Todays, market of produce and dairy does not resemble what we knew as fresh dairy or produce then. It is difficult to know just what we are eating anymore. I always play it safe and use the same guide lines for dairy as I did then believing that somewhere in all this food there is some realness still there so I treat eggs as if they were just taken out of the nest and milk as if I just milked the cow and butter the same. This way I feel safe and have never made any one ill. No one wants to be guilty of making someone ill these bacteria can kill. Here is a website that if you explore will give you some in sites far beyond what we normally think of as ok.
Here is the web site you will want to research, http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/
When you get there, it is the-
Federal Consumer Information Center Pueblo Colorado,
When you get there, click on
Food, When you get there, click on-
Can Your Kitchen pass the Food Safety Test?
1998 528GG Free
That web site is http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdkitchn.html
The phone number for the about Center is 1-888 INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332)
When you get there, click on Food
U.S Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville
MD 2085 7-0001
When you get there, click on Food
Food borne Illness, Nutrition, Dietary Supplements…
Program Areas
Food Additives and Pre-market Approval
www.FoodSafety.gov
Gateway to Government Food Safety Information
When you get there, click on
Food
When you get there, click on
Food Additives and Pre-Market Approval
When you get there, it is
EAFUS A FOOD ADDITIVE DATA BASE
US Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
