Sakana - Eggs

QUESTION: I have heard that one may not leave eggs overnight. What is the basis for this?

ANSWER: The Gemara (Nida 17a) states that there is a sakana (danger) to eat peeled eggs, onions and garlic that were left overnight. It is questionable whether this sakana applies today, since this halacha was not codified in Shulchan Aruch. However, later poskim such as the Shulchan Aruch Ha’Rav do cite this as the halacha, and there is a custom to be strict. There is a discussion as to whether the sakana applies to raw eggs (liquid eggs), cooked eggs or both. Sefer Beis Shlomo (YD 189) and Kaf HaChaim (504:1) maintain that only raw eggs are dangerous, while Darchei Teshuvah (116:74) cites Yad Meir and Degel Ephraim that only cooked eggs are dangerous, and other poskim who do not differentiate. If before the morning, the eggs were mixed with other ingredients, there is no sakana.

The sakana only applies if the shell was completely removed, but if one piece of shell remains on the egg then there is no sakana.

To avoid this sakana, the egg may be mixed with other ingredients such as salt or oil. Igros Moshe (Y.D. III: 20) writes that industrial liquid eggs which are produced in one factory with the intent of shipping them to bakeries all of over the country, such that they cannot possibly be used the same day that they were cracked, are not subject to this sakana.

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