What to do if an egg contains a bloodstain?

Yes, a spot of blood in an egg can be surprising. Eggs are natural products and blood spots can occur occasionally, although this is rather rare (<1%). It can be found in both shop-bought eggs and eggs from domestic hens.

Bloodstained eggs are safe to eat, but if you find it unappetizing, you can simply remove them with a spoon or the tip of a knife.

What exactly are we talking about?

Fortunately, the red spot is not an embryo, but a blood spot. They develop when a tiny blood vessel in the hen’s ovary or egg ruptures during the egg-laying process. The hen herself does not notice it and is not affected at all.

Certainly not an embryo in a farmed egg

For a hen’s egg to contain an embryo, it must have been fertilised by a cock. It is only after this fertilisation that a germ appears that will grow into an embryo, then a chick ready to emerge from its shell.

Egg farmers don’t usually mix laying hens with roosters! So there’s virtually no chance of it being an embryo.

Rarely blood in a farmed egg

During packing, the eggs are checked using a process known as candling.
This technique involves passing the eggs in front of a source of light intense enough to pass through the shell.
Candling allows any anomalies to be detected, such as cracked eggs, eggs with blood spots or other defects. These are then discarded and not distributed.

And in Columbus eggs …

There are no roosters on Columbus farms, so a priori there’s no chance of a fertilised egg.
Before being packed, all our eggs go through the candling process one by one, guaranteeing the highest quality and almost total elimination of eggs containing blood spots.

DISCOVER OUR RANGE OF EGGS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM