LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government has made it mandatory for egg producers to stamp an expiry date on every egg from April 1. The eggs will also be marked with the date they were laid, Neha Lalchandani reports. Animal husbandry department officials said traders and farmers who do not comply with this rule will either have their products destroyed or their eggs will be labeled “unfit for human consumption”. Eggs laid are safe to eat within two weeks if stored at an ambient temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius, and within five weeks if stored at an ambient temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. According to the Food Safety and Drug Administration, eggs cannot be refrigerated with vegetables because they require different temperatures. There are only two egg cold storages, one each in Agra and Jhansi. “We found that in many cases the rules were not followed. Consumers were not aware of this either,” said Mukesh Meshram, principal secretary of animal husbandry and dairying.
