In the US, there's a concern for salmonella or other bacteria and viruses. Factory egg farming is a horror show in regards to overcrowding and hygiene. Sick birds are crammed in with healthy laying birds, and washing the eggs is one of the safest ways to prevent contamination.
It does increase the permeability of the shell, decreasing shelf life and requiring refrigeration.
If your eggs looked like this in the USA, there's a small but non-zero chance that you'll shit yourself to death. Probably not, but it's scary enough.
We could improve factory farming regulations so it's not a like a Cronenberg movie, but then eggs would be more expensive. And even if we did, and stopped washing our eggs, Americans would still want them to look clean and would still keep them in the fridge because we've been conditioned to expect to die on the toilet covered in wet feces if we see bird poop on the eggs.
sure they could charge more, but the market wouldn't swallow it so they would sell less. if they could charge more for eggs, they would be doing so right now, for extra profit.
If they could do that, they would do that right now. If they could charge more there's nothing stopping them from doing that today. We are already at the maximum price they can charge.
Chickens are vaccinated against salmonella (and a bunch of other things) when they are chicks in Europe. It means you don't need to worry about shitting yourself to death, the chickens are slightly happier by not being sick, and your eggs stay fresher for longer.
It would probably add $0.005 per egg, so US producers will claim it's communism if a regulation is brought in to vaccinate chicken, but it would be worth doing.
Fuckin finally. The tryna high road the Europe and shit like they don't have poor chicken treatment situations too. Its all down to vaccination requirements. They the treatment of chickens cause both places have issues lol
But eggs are yummy. Baked goods, thickened sauces, omelettes and deviled eggs and egg salad, you can't really replace them with vegan alternatives. Aquafaba is pretty close for some of it, but people like their eggs and don't care about how much their food suffers before we eat it.