The Egg-Rant

24. September 2006 - 18:01

Today I had two fried eggs, and as I had a closer look at the them, I was wondering what all those numbers printed on the eggshells mean. I've seen them for years, but never really knew what they ment. My first thought was that the hens started "blogging" by pooping out some ASCII codes together with their eggs.

However, German law requires an expiration date on any kind of food. As a result, even salt, mineral water or honey have a fictional expiration date printed on, although those are viands that don't go bad.

But they're printing so many numbers on each egg, it's nearly a book, so I looked that up on the internet. And it's really strange, everything is encoded in those numbers. If the hen lives in a cage, or on a meadow. If the hen eats healthy corn, or just crap. The hen's postal address, her birthday, her hair color, her shoe size, her cell phone number, her favourite movie, her taste in bags, her credit card number and everything else.

But neither when the egg was laid, nor a date when it expires. I mean, I don't care in which state the hen lives (as long as it's not Bavaria, just kidding!), but the most important fact for me as consumer is just not there? What's the use of it?

Update: Jimmi asked for a picture of an egg. Here's one I found on the internet because I need to buy new ones tomorrow. While I was searching for an image, I found a page where you can enter the number, and then they're showing you images of the farm and the hens. Weird.

Kommentare

RIC - 24. September 2006 - 23:07

Oh Rian, man! You just made me have the best laughs of the day!!! What a commical post! You're really talented! All those references to the hen's life were just perfect, marvellous!
So you don't like bavaria that much, huh? Never mind about that! I don't like it either (nobody's listening...), and it's the German State I know best... Das Leben ist so ungerecht...
In the end, you get no valid information whatsoever. Is this a crazy world or what?
Keep that spirit, Rian! :-)

Rian - 25. September 2006 - 12:04

Hey Ric, I'm glad you liked that post.
But I don't really dislike Bavaria. In fact, my state needs Bavaria, otherwise we would be too close to Austria.

No, I'm kidding again. Of course, there is a slight rivalry between us and them, since we're the two states in the south, and we often get confused, even by other Germans, but from our perspective we are totally different. And I was just playing with that cliché.

Martin - 25. September 2006 - 13:16

What an eggs-citing post ! It was really eggs-cellent ! Maybe the hens are 'hatching' a secret plot to take over the world !
(OK, sorry I'll stop with the puns now...)

Rian - 25. September 2006 - 13:28

Martin, chicken ARE evil and well organized. Have you seen Chicken Run? If you had seen it, you would agree. :-)

Jimmi - 25. September 2006 - 20:44

Ive never seen something like that, do you have any pictures of these? They don't do that here in the USA...Wierd they are usually uptight about shit like that.. LOL

RIC - 26. September 2006 - 1:38

Weird, yesss, to say the least! By all the Olympic gods above, I couldn't care less whose egg I'm eating, not to mention whether the hen «resides» on the Côte d'Azur or the Riviera... This is an upside world indeed.
But I had some laughs, and that's healthy too after all. :-)

Rian - 26. September 2006 - 13:20

You're right, Ric. It doesn't really matter if the hen tans on the Côte d'Azur, or if it's skiing in St. Anton.

However, I DO care about the hen's living standard. I don't want her to have a terrible life. I usually buy free range eggs, because I think that's the best for the hen, although they're more expensive. But that's all I need to know.

I figured out that the lower the first number is, the better is the hen's life. Where 0 means Cockaigne, 3 means Hades.

Sexy Duet - 26. September 2006 - 15:04

Like Jimmi, I have never seen or heard of that before - certainly not done in Australia. Learn something new every day huh.

Ms SD

The Persian - 26. September 2006 - 16:10

wow that is too kool!! Our eggs aren't stamped here, but I have to really hand it to Germany for placing an expiry date on everything. I would imagine it has saved many lives, not to mention prevented people from getting sick.

:)

Rian - 27. September 2006 - 0:09

Sexy Duet: I guess it's an European thing. Well, we got those stamps on eggs about three or four years ago.

The Persian: European laws are sometimes really stupid. I'm waiting for a law that requires a number on each grain of rice. Sounds funny, but I'm sure we'll have that in less than 5 years. :-)