Checking Eggs

Checking Eggs for Blood Spots

The halachic requirement to check eggs for bloodspots due to the concern of dam rikum (that the blood is the beginnings of a new embryo), applies only if it’s feasible to do so. Since rov beitzim (most eggs) do not contain blood, if the conditions are such that it’s not possible to check them, such as if the egg has already been cooked or mixed with food, or if it’s nighttime and there isn’t sufficient light, we can assume that there is no problem. 

Most commercial eggs sold today are not fertilized eggs, and have no possibility of developing into chickens. Bloodspots in eggs that are safna me’arah (literal translation: heated from the ground), or produced through artificial means (hormonal stimulation without the presence of a rooster in the coop with the egg-laying hens), and not by way of the natural reproductive process, aren't forbidden—save for the issur (prohibition) of mar’is ayin (giving the appearance of ingesting forbidden blood), or dam beitzim (blood from a broken blood vessel in the hen). 

Therefore, when necessary, one may be lenient regarding checking commercial eggs. We may certainly rely on children to check them.

Even though our custom is to discard the entire egg if there is a blood spot (according to halachah only the actual blood spot has to be discarded), if we mixed a commercial egg into food, and then detected a blood spot, only the blood spot has to be removed, and the rest of the ingredients may be eaten. 

It should be noted that fertilized eggs are available in the marketplace; the cartons are clearly marked “natural” or “organic”, and they are sold at a premium. The halachos regarding those eggs are different. #468

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Practical Halacha: One minute a day. By Horav Yosef Yeshaya Braun, shlita, Mara D'asra and member of the Badatz of Crown Heights.