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[quote=Anonymous]It's the law in the US that all eggs intended for consumption have to be washed prior to sale, even for the ones you get at the farmer's market.  When eggs are washed, it removes the protective "bloom" from the shell so they need to be refrigerated after that.  If OP's eggs have been out for two days they need to be tossed.

I sell eggs at farmers markets and the health inspectors will come by booths and always check the temperature of the eggs and the coolers, and then give me a pop quiz on if I wash eggs (the answer is yes, duh, it's the law) and what I use for a wash (dish soap/water, followed by a bleach water sanitizing rinse).   Some chickens are not the most hygienic when they lay eggs and sometimes poop happens at the same time as egg laying.  Some of them also like to lay eggs in places other than their nesting boxes which leads to really dirty eggs.  There is no way I would eat an egg that was not washed and sanitized, not after what I've seen over the years.  It's not just salmonella I worry about, but garden variety E.Coli can also cause problems.

One way to look for salmonella free flocks is to look for a National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) producer - those hens get tested 2X a year for Pullorum disease (salmonella) and avian influenza and flocks are required to be NPIP in order for the farm to legally sell live birds or what's called "hatching eggs"- fertilized eggs.  Just because they are free-ranged doesn't necessarily mean they will be salmonella free- the bacteria is transmitted through rodents so if a farm doesn't have a decent rodent mitigation method and keep coops clean, it's possible that birds are exposed even while free ranging. I occasionally catch my hens running around with field mice "treasures" they've captured while they are roaming our farm (chickens are ominivores), and my flocks are NPIP.[/quote]

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