McDonald’s Eggs Are More Fresh Than You Think

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Disclaimer: The FTC requires me to tell you that I am a brand ambassador for Central Arkansas McDonald’s.  All opinions are my own.

 

 

 

I love to eat breakfast at McDonald’s. 

Once a week, I treat myself to one of their delicious breakfast sandwiches.  My favorite is the Steak & Egg McMuffin, but the others are great too.

 

 

 

 

I also raise my own chickens and I am often asked how I can eat those “fake eggs” at McDonald’s when I have fresh eggs readily at my disposal.

I have a feeling you may be surprised at HOW fresh and real McDonald’s eggs really are!

How fresh are grocery store eggs?

Ideally, eggs should be processed the day after they are laid.  USDA regulations only require eggs to be processed within 30 days.  That means the eggs you are seeing in the grocery store could already be more than 30 days old the moment they are placed on the shelf. 

You can learn more about the freshness of eggs by checking the carton.

 

 

 

 

The USDA requires that all egg cartons be stamped with the date they were processed.  This is done using a three-digit code which represents the day of the year.  For example, January 1 would be 001 and December 31 would be 365.

A “best by” or “sell by” date is not federally mandated but since many individual states require it, you will often see this date also listed on the package.  When using a “sell by” date it cannot exceed 45 days past the processing date.

Let’s look at an example.

 

 

 

 

This batch of eggs was processed on 021 or January 21.  These eggs could have been laid as long ago as December 21.  The sell by date is 43 days after they were processed on March 6th.  It is possible that when these eggs were purchased they were already 73 days old.  That is just over 10 weeks!

It is widely accepted that eggs are considered useable for an additional 5 weeks once the “best by” or “sell by” date has passed. 

So – when you are cracking that “fresh” store-bought egg into your pan on April 12 it could possibly be 110 days old.

 

 

 

 

How fresh are McDonald’s eggs?

I’ll start by telling you that they are WAY more fresh than the typical grocery store egg!

McDonald’s goes through so many eggs each day that they have egg farms and processing plants that operate solely and specifically for McDonald’s. Because of the high use of eggs and the dedication of the processing plants, most “round eggs” served in McDonald’s are three to six days old when they are delivered to individual restaurants! Three to six days old!

How is this possible? First, check out this video!

Pretty cool, huh?  The plants are processing the eggs the same day or the day after they are laid.  The fresh eggs are quickly processed and cooled and are immediately placed onto trucks and shipped out to McDonald’s stores all over the United States.

Here in Central Arkansas, most McDonald’s restaurants are receiving egg shipments twice a week.  It would be a rare case for you to be served an egg that is much more than a week from being laid.  Most grocery store eggs haven’t even been processed yet!

Are McDonald’s Eggs Fresh?

Yes! And, yes again!

McDonald’s round eggs are cooked fresh in an ‘egg ring’ at each restaurant, every day. 

 

 

 

 

 

The cool thing is that you can substitute a ‘round egg’ on any of McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches for no extra charge.

So next time you are in McDonald’s for breakfast you can rest assured that the eggs you are eating are among the freshest eggs you can get!