Why do Chinese people suddenly like to eat raw eggs?

As people's consumption upgrades, the prices of many common foods are surprisingly high.

As the world's largest producer and consumer of eggs, China has a market size of 300 billion yuan, and is also a popular destination in the eyes of businesses.

So, following the "Ice Cream Assassin" and "Yogurt Bandit", the price of eggs has also doubled, often to 3 or 5 yuan per egg, once again embarrassing people's wallets.

First-laid eggs, selenium-rich eggs, DHA eggs... various prefixes give eggs their origin and determine their value.

According to merchants, these eggs have a wide range of benefits - from high nutrition and easy absorption to promoting brain development and protecting eyesight, they seem to be omnipotent.

With a little observation, you will find that the eggs with fancy prefixes also have a common label - sterile and edible raw.

Why do Chinese people suddenly like to eat raw eggs? Are raw sterilized eggs really more nutritious than ordinary eggs?

01 In the egg market, sterilized eggs are king

In October this year, the average wholesale price of ordinary eggs in the national market was 12.1 yuan/kg.

Estimated based on the weight of 50g each, the wholesale price of an egg is about 0.6 yuan, and the retail price mostly does not exceed 1.2 yuan.

But the value of "concept sterile eggs" with various prefixes began to double.

An e-commerce platform shows that the price of the best-selling sterilized eggs is 86.8 yuan/30 eggs, and the price of a single egg is 2.89 yuan.

The more expensive ones were even sold at a "sky-high" price of 10 yuan per coin.

If you search in "price ascending order", the cheapest sterilized egg costs 1.5 yuan per egg.

Surprisingly, price hasn't stopped consumers from buying it.

Despite the high prices, the growth momentum of sterilized eggs has become even more rapid, making them the "king" in my country's 300 billion egg market.

The 2021 China Raw Edible Eggs White Paper shows that raw edible eggs have become the fastest growing category of eggs on the Tmall platform;

In 2020, about 80% of consumers bought mid- to high-end eggs priced at 1.5 yuan per egg or above, of which eggs that can be eaten raw accounted for nearly half of the market share.

A similar trend is also seen on the fresh food platform Hema - the growth rate of edible eggs has reached more than 10 times, and sales account for 40% of the egg category.

Supported by sales, many supermarkets have set up special counters for sterilized eggs, and it was even difficult to find ordinary eggs at one point.

Of course, related brands also took advantage of this opportunity to reap the benefits.

Even in an environment where consumer investment as a whole is cooling down, it can still gain the favor of capital.

02 Real money flows into sterile eggs

At the beginning of this year, the sterilized egg brand "Huang Tiane" completed a C round of financing of over 600 million yuan, setting a record for the largest amount of financing for egg brands in the basic food field in recent years.

Prior to this, Purui Capital had invested 300 million yuan, using the funds for mid- to late-stage projects, to make an angel round investment in Huang Tiane.

This rare investment method in the industry is enough to show the importance and expectations that capitals place on the "sterile egg" track.

You know, it is very difficult to brand agricultural products and create a brand premium so that capital can profit from it.

But the fact is, this tiny sterile egg miraculously achieved it by relying on the fertile conceptual soil of the Chinese market.

In traditional concepts, most people believe that eggs have different levels.

For example, it is a "natural" thing that free-range eggs are sold at a higher price.

Therefore, it seems "reasonable" that sterilized eggs, which are advertised as "no egg smell, can be eaten raw, have yellower yolks, and are more nutritious", are more expensive.

In addition, with the background of consumption upgrading, the post-90s and post-00s consumer groups are constantly rising, and the acceptance of "expensive" eggs has further increased.

For example, they rarely buy loose eggs by weight like their parents did, but are more inclined to choose branded boxed eggs, which are slightly more expensive.

This is also a huge opportunity for manufacturers - every 1% increase in sales of boxed eggs can bring a market size of three to four billion.

The "quality and high-end" development of the egg market has become a general trend, as it can both satisfy consumers and benefit producers.

On this basis, consumers who pursue a "better taste" are no longer limited to the previous fully cooked methods such as poached eggs, boiled eggs, and scrambled eggs, but are moving towards eating scenarios related to "sterilized eggs".

There are more than 40,000 notes on the grass-planting platform, and ways of eating raw eggs, soft-boiled eggs, hot spring eggs, and poached eggs are becoming increasingly popular.

But when we take away its "Internet celebrity" coat, we can't help but wonder: Are sterilized eggs really that good?

03 Are there really no bacteria in sterile eggs?

Sterile eggs generally refer to eggs that have been pasteurized and strictly processed.

The most typical "bacteria" among them is Salmonella.

As a common foodborne pathogen, it often lurks in the meat, eggs and milk we eat, causing 70%-80% of bacterial food poisoning in my country.

After infection, the human body may experience symptoms such as diarrhea and dehydration, which may be life-threatening in severe cases.

Salmonella enters eggs mainly through two pathways.

One is to infect the mother hen. The other is to enter through the porous structure of the eggshell with the help of feces and dirt on the surface of the egg.

In order to eliminate Salmonella, standardized sterilized egg manufacturers will strictly control these two aspects.

Let the mother hens undergo various Salmonella tests from an early age, and control the number of microorganisms in feed, drinking water, breeding environment and other aspects to avoid Salmonella infection in eggs to the greatest extent.

Before sterilized eggs are put on the market, they have to go through multiple sterilization processes and then come to us through special packaging and transportation.

But even so, sterile eggs are not completely sterile.

Take pasteurization as an example, its sterilization rate can only reach 98% at most.

What's more, there is currently no national standard for edible eggs in my country.

The current group standard also targets the production management process. It is unknown whether the rest of the storage and sales process can be sterile and whether the eggs can be infected.

From this perspective, it may be more accurate to call it "less bacteria eggs".

04 Ordinary eggs are not bad

If sterilized eggs still have the risk of bacterial infection, aren’t ordinary eggs even more unclean?

This is true in theory, but in real life, the difference in safety between the two is not that big.

CCTV's "Life Circle" program once conducted such an experiment:

Two types of sterilized eggs and two types of ordinary eggs were randomly purchased and sent to the College of Veterinary Medicine of China Agricultural University for testing.

Egg white and egg yolk samples were extracted for bacterial enrichment experiments and culture on selective medium.

Three days later, the results showed that neither the sterilized eggs nor the ordinary eggs tested contained Salmonella.

Experts explained why:

During the process of evolution, eggs themselves have formed an effective resistance mechanism that can better block the entry of bacteria and quickly kill them even if they enter.

So whether they are "sterile eggs" or not, most of them are safe.

But if you want to eat it raw, you still have to choose sterilized eggs that are within their shelf life and stored in the refrigeration.

It is worth noting that the nutritional value of raw sterilized eggs is not even as good as cooked ordinary eggs.

Studies have shown that 91% of the protein in boiled eggs can be absorbed by the human body;

The protease inhibitors in raw eggs will greatly reduce the body's absorption rate of protein to about 55%.

Eating raw eggs for a long time may also cause a deficiency of B vitamins.

In this light, cooked ordinary eggs may be more cost-effective.

Behind the popularity of sterilized eggs is people's higher pursuit of food quality and taste experience, as well as the positive fact that relevant companies pay more attention to food safety.

But as consumers, we still have to make choices based on our personal needs and purchasing power.