Eggs in UK/Europe - how to buy kosher eggs

amother

Molasses

Wed, Aug 03 2022, 3:55 pm

DrMom wrote:

Which breeds of chickens are not kosher? Are we talking actual chickens, or something like a chickenhawk, which is not actually a chicken? And are these non-kosher birds likely to be used for standard supermarket eggs?

Any breed that isn't part of our mesora is considered not kosher. In the US the commercial chickens are all kosher and very likely in Europe too, I have no idea. But this is important information to know because you can't just go to a random farm to buy chicken eggs. Many of those aren't kosher.

amother

Phlox

Wed, Aug 03 2022, 3:59 pm

AYLOR AFAIK if I remember correctly but check it out. Kosher eggs are narrow at one end and rounded at the other. If you find an egg that is either rounded at both ends or narrow at both, don't use it. Apart from that you can buy chicken eggs in any store and check them. Brown ones are more likely to be bloody because the shells are less translucent so the candling is less effective.

caza

Wed, Aug 03 2022, 4:59 pm

We are also doing such a trip, leaving next week, we are doing Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France (some of them we are only driving by and some we are stopping). Maybe we'll meet Wink

Last time I was in Austria, the supermarket there only had brown ones, they cost then 2.5 euro for 6 eggs and we were lucky if we got 2 eggs without blood spots, they all had blood spots.
This time we hope to buy some trays of eggs in Belgium and have it with us.

Raisin

Wed, Aug 03 2022, 5:16 pm

caza wrote:

We are also doing such a trip, leaving next week, we are doing Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France (some of them we are only driving by and some we are stopping). Maybe we'll meet Wink

Maybe a convenience supermarket? I am not in those countries but a store like lidl sells about 20 eggs for €4.

samantha87

Wed, Aug 03 2022, 5:41 pm

leilatov1 wrote:

In the UK you find chicken eggs as standard. All kosher. Quail eggs - not kosher and duck eggs expensive but kosher. Never seen anything else in the supermarket. Maybe goose eggs at Xmas time but again those would be kosher.

Quail is a kosher bird.

BadTichelDay

Wed, Aug 03 2022, 5:53 pm

amother [ Molasses ] wrote:

If I remember rightly, commercial eggs bought in supermarkets are on the various kosher lists in Europe. Commercial chicken breeds these days are patented and globalized by international agro-companies. So they are probably the same as in the US.

Buying from a farm could be more problematic because they might have odd heritage breeds instead.

Eggs of ducks, geese and quails or whatever other birds are sold in specialty stores, much more expensive and quite differently sized. You can't buy any of these by accident in a normal supermarket without noticing. Also, the boxes are usually labeled and have pictures on them.

Brown eggs have more spots, but some of these are protein- and pigment spots and not blood. I once asked our rav and he kind of laughed and said it's not like a bedika cloth because brown spots in an egg are not a problem. Only red/reddish ones.

amother

Jade

Wed, Aug 03 2022, 11:53 pm

Bad TichelDay has it correct. It is so frustrating. I wish one of our learned resident imas can give a shiur/course here on a thread, with pics, as a public service.

Only chicken breeds with our mesora are considered kosher. Commercial breeds are. Many small farmers have breeds that are not.

White eggs are "candled" so usually all imperfect eggs are not sold so we dont find real blood spots usually.

We are noheg to toss the whole egg but there is room to be more lenient according to some when it gets expensive.

Brown eggs have all this stuff, much of which is not blood but since all of us ladies are uneducated we end up tossing good eggs and wasting so much food and money since they are getting so expensive again.

While one end slightly pointed (but not too pointy) and the other end rounded is a sign of a kosher breed, it is not to be used alone, just one of multiple signs, (like fins & scales on fish, one is not enough).

We all know to check raw eggs, but there are rules for cooked eggs too.
There are rules for small farmed eggs vs commercial.

It is so frustrating to not know this topic well as a woman.

We should be able to pasken on our own on all the random stuff we find on brown eggs instead of for sure being so wasteful because we dont know.

😒😔

amother

Gold

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 12:35 am

According to the shulchan aruch, eggs that are round on one end and oval on the other end come from a kosher animal, as long as they also have a yolk surrounded by egg white (what you're used to seeing in an egg). Also according to the shulchan aruch, if the merchant claims it's from a kosher animal (this is equivalent to the label or packaging today) and you clearly see the other signs I mentioned earlier, you can assume it is in fact kosher. Even if the merchant/ seller is not Jewish.

amother

Maple

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 2:17 am

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

Why we know 🙄 and live in one of the mentioned countries. And read this thread in wonderment since finding eggs in a supermarket takes less time than responding on this thread. Normal white chicken eggs are available everywhere and brown ones work too.

amother

Floralwhite

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 2:49 am

amother [ DarkKhaki ] wrote:

Eggs are fine, as long as they've been checked for bloodspots before using. Although apparently there might be an issue with the ink used to print the codes onto the eggs, so I would check it's okay.

The problem with ink is on Pesach only, because the ink is with chometz.
I live in Europe, we avoid brown eggs as you end up throwing away half of the package because of blood spots. So in Germany its not a problem to find white eggs, in France they sell white eggs in kosher stores.

amother

Daylily

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 6:54 am

leilatov1 wrote:

Some varieties of quail are kosher, but you have to know which type and how to identify the eggs.