Ok so I don't know if its safe to use the eggs for baking or throw them out? I went shopping last night & forgot the eggs on the counter, at least 12 hours. My grandmothers always leaves the eggs overnight to make boiled eggs.

Please let me know what you guys think. Ok to use or throw out.

Eggs don't really have to be refrigerated, so I vote for OK.

Also butter and margarine don't have to be refrigerated.

It is definitely OK to leave eggs (uncooked in the shell) overnight on the counter. Your grandmothers do it to age the eggs quickly. Super fresh eggs do not peel well- and that is an understatement. So you leave them on the counter the night before you boil them. At worst you have taken 3 or 4 days off of their use by date. Refrigerating eggs just extends their shelf life. Also a rotten egg isn't something you can miss.

This is another thing i never knew! good to know? I got through eggs very quickly.. so i never thought about the shelf life. What is the shelf life on eggs? They must last a while, no?

Months.

this always makes me smile. When my daughter lived in Scotland and I was always hoping over to see her (great excuse,eh?) I marvelled how the eggs aren't refrigerated in the UK. And miracle of miracles, no one is dropping dead from it. Of course the French don't pasteurize their cheese either and they end up with the world's greatest cheeses.

Actually (except for pie crust) I usually bring ingredients to room temp for even baking. For pie crust I put all ingredients except the water into the freezer overnight. With the water I use ice cubes.

It use to be that you could buy the eggs in the store and they were not refrigerated and most the time were not treated equally from production, trucking to purchasing and temperature fluctuation is critical to safety, thus the regulation to refridgerate eggs.

I have heard that in the UK they are not refridgerated.

Thanks for the responses. I will use them up today.

Narie is right. You can go to the FDA site and there is a chart showing the aging of an egg at room temp vs. refrigeration. I didn't provide a link because I looked it up a few years ago.

Whenever I have a food safety question, I go straight to the government sites and nowhere else. The FDA is a great start, then the egg board. Dairy gov sites are another great source of information.

I leave eggs and butter out for a looong time and I've never had a problem.

I'm in the UK and I rarely refrigerate my eggs- I have a ceramic chicken which I keep them in so they're always at room temp for any last minute baking. I've never had a problem, but of course if I cracked the egg and it was off, I wouldn't use it. I tend to use them up well before the 'best before' date.

yup here in the UK our eggs sit on normal shelves in grocery stores, so technically they could be sitting out for a number of days until bought. i regularly leave my eggs out overnight if i know i want to bake something the next day, same for my butter, unless it's super hot (which is rare over here, unfortunately) but butter is refrigerated in shops.

I was brought up not to refrigerate eggs either. Maybe it depends on your climate?

For those in the US, remember that eggs at room temp age much more rapidly than those refrigerated. The expirations assume refrigeration. So for those of us not used to this practice, please research the shelf life of an unrefrigerated egg.

Or maybe our UK and beyond friends will share proper care.