Around 550 million eggs have been recalled because of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella enteriditis. That's about the population of Denmark. Or the official tally of goats there are in the entire world. 380 million of these eggs came from Iowa-based company Wright County Egg alone.

Water used to wash eggs has been found to be contaminated with a salmonella DNA fingerprint isolate matching the outbreak strain. Oh, and at Hillandale Farms, “Outside access doors to manure pits were pushed out with the weight of manure, which was piled in some cases four to eight feet high”, “live and dead maggots too numerous to count” and “unsealed rodent holes”, according to the FDA.

It may be romanticism on my part, but my country grandmother taught me (and I'm not about to Google this) that washing eggs removed their natural protection. In the days before everything was governed by Health and Safety regulaltions, farmers sold eggs straight from under the hen, covered in feathers and bits of straw and a pencil mark of the date they were taken off the nest. (This is how they're still sold in farmers' markets across Europe.)

Country people understood that for the first week from that date they were fit to be cooked as they were. After that, for a further week, they were for use in baking. Then they were fit for animal food or the garbage bin. You were never supposed to wash those farmyard bits off the eggs because they provided a natural preservation to the porous shell and its living contents. Nor were you supposed to keep them in the fridge. That killed off the contents.

As I say, this may be idealizing the Olden Days. But I don't remember anyone getting sick eating eggs Grandma-style. And the FDA anticipates 1470 reported illnesses from this current outbreak. Go figure.