Eggs

Buying anything in China is always an adventure especially when it comes to food. One of the most common things I buy is eggs. They're easy to cook in a bunch of different ways and stay good for a long time. But deciding what eggs to buy in the supermarket is still a challenge. They packages don't seem to have a sell by date like they would in the US. Instead there is a date on them but I assume it's when they were packaged, since the date is always a few days before when I'm actually buying them. What's really weird is that the eggs in the store are never, ever, refrigerated. They just sit there. Also they sit there for a really long time sometimes. I've gone in to buy eggs and looked at the dates, then come in a week later and eggs with the same dates were still for sale. That being said I've never gotten sick from eating them, I think it can be hard to tell in China. I usually hard boil them, though that actually reduces the shelf life of eggs. What's a more interesting question is that the little supermarkets near me only sell unmarked eggs in plastic bags. They just stack them in open containers and you take as many as you want. I don't overly trust Chinese food safety standards but it's harder when you have no idea if any standards are being followed at all. Well I guess that's China.