Are fried and plastic-wrapped eggs really starting to be sold in Spain?

“Building material” for a sandwich

Recently, a Facebook user from Lithuania shared a post of a man living in Germany, which used a photo of this very product.

“Humanity is really VERY sick,” commented a German translated she “The supermarket chain Mercadona has been selling fried eggs wrapped in plastic for several weeks on the popular Spanish holiday island of Mallorca.”

Screenshot from Facebook/This fried egg was not sold in Spain and not recently

Male record received 4 thousand so far. comments and even 11 thousand. reactions, it was shared by 2.4 thousand. together.

The photo shows a simple fried egg, which is often made for breakfast and can be ordered in public catering establishments. Only this one, baked without any additives, is in a regular circular shape and placed in a styrofoam box and covered with plastic wrap.

A number of commentators expressed surprise, outrage or even horror at what such an egg might taste like. Others explained that it “doesn’t look real, just like meat”, scoffed that the product was probably intended for German tourists who can’t make breakfast in the morning due to a hangover, and even questioned whether the photo itself was real.

However, there were also those who blocked fried eggs from the supermarket, some explained that they buy them themselves.

It is probably much tastier to eat freshly cooked. But if you put such an egg in a sandwich, there is nothing wrong with it.

“It’s ‘building material’ like people making sandwiches on their lunch break, etc,” one netizen commented. “There are other products.”

He pointed out that in German supermarkets you can find boiled eggs, salad or sauce in plastic packages, as well as baked goods or semi-finished products cooked in the supermarket.

Worse – yesterday’s potatoes

Head of the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, prof. Dr. Rimantas Stukaswhen he heard regarding such a product, he first smiled: “The height of laziness, if you already buy a fried egg.”

However, he admitted that the nutritional value of such an egg is essentially the same as that of a freshly cooked one. “Its biological value is practically unchanged,” the portal said 15min said the scientist. – There is protein, there is yolk, where there is cholesterol, there are fat-soluble vitamins and other substances. They are classified as stable.

Skirmantas Lisauskas/BNS photo/Rimantas Stukas

It amazes me that we buy boiled potatoes. There are those. Potatoes contain vitamin C, which is very unstable and breaks down. If we boil the potatoes, it reduces a little, but there is still a lot. If the potatoes get cold, the vitamin C has already halved. If we didn’t eat and put it away for tomorrow, there was practically no vitamin C left.

As for the fried egg, as long as its shelf life has not expired, everything is still there. It’s just that the taste qualities are no longer the same. It is probably much tastier to eat freshly cooked. But if you put such an egg in a sandwich, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

According to R. Stukas, although there is nothing wrong with eating a previously cooked egg from a nutritional point of view, in this way both adults and children are instilled with the understanding that it is not necessary to cook at home, even scrambled eggs can be bought.

“Anyway, that egg is not bad at all, just unusual for us. We say that eating freshly prepared food is the healthiest and best. Even those potatoes – it is much better to cook them and eat them immediately than when the biological value has already decreased. But nobody thinks regarding it.

Eggs Benedict would be a poorer choice nutritionally because it is made with a fatty sauce.

And the egg is already completely unusual, but for the sake of convenience, a completely original idea. Of course, it has to be kept at the right temperature, in the right conditions.”

According to the interviewer, such a product can be a good choice for tourists who want an egg but cannot cook it themselves. “It certainly won’t,” laughed the professor.

He also added that eggs benedict, which has become popular in recent years, would be a poorer choice from a nutritional point of view because it is made with a fatty sauce.

Egg – from Paraguay

The same picture of a fried egg can be found elsewhere on the internet. A German website recently posted a photo with with the same commentas in the aforementioned Facebook user account, LinkedIn – with similar. On Quora a year ago, she presented as an example of the absurd.

The photo is distributed at least from 2020so it is obvious that such fried eggs did not start to be sold in recent months.

One Reddit user three years ago scoffed, that just looking at this picture makes me feel lazy. Meanwhile, the meme site 9GAG has something going on commented: “A man who buys fried eggs like this has most likely given up on living.”

On the package can be viewed the egg’s expiration date is “09.10.20” (October 9, 2020), meaning it was definitely not photographed this fall. More than one commenter was caught off guard by the number 2,000 on the label. It says “TotalGs” in front of it. It can be understood as a reference to weight (for example, “total grams”), but a fried egg 2 thousand. does not weigh grams.

Some who doubted the authenticity of the photo bet on this number, understanding it as a price and claiming that such a price cannot exist. Euros would be way too much, the previous Spanish currency, the peseta, has been out of circulation since 2002, but even converting to it would be expensive (around 12 euros).

Screenshot from LinkedIn/This fried egg was not sold in Spain and not recently

The clue to unraveling this riddle is given on the label itself. The word “Super6” is written in the upper left corner. It can be assumed that this is the name of the marketplace (although the aforementioned name “Mercadona” is not visible).

An internet search confirms and leads to the supermarket chain Superseis (Spanish for Super six) web page. Bet 25 of its shopping centers does not operate in Spain, and even less in Mallorca, but in Paraguay (this can be understood already from the website address, which ends with the domain .py).

This also explains the mentioned number – the price is actually indicated on the label. 2,000 guaranties, whose name is abbreviated to Gs, corresponds to approximately 25 euro cents.

A couple of articles can also be found online (here, here), telling regarding this egg in the context of the problem of plastic waste, which some netizens have drawn attention to.

One in Spanish media 2020 an article published in October entitled “The most ecological thing would be to disappear: vacuum-fried eggs have reached supermarkets”.

It tells the story of food packaged in this way, from meat to fruit and vegetables, often peeled and cut into pieces. This allows not only to extend the shelf life of the products, but also preserves the taste and texture. Vacuum packaging not only makes food more convenient to eat, but also creates additional plastic waste.

The article states that Doug Trussi shared the photo of the egg on his Twitter account (now X). She indicated that she took a photo of the packaging on that day (October 9, 2020, when the product expired) in a supermarket in Paraguay. Post on this social network no longer availablebut then it spread within hours and received many comments. There was a shot to illustrate and press articles.

Fresh would cost three times cheaper

The aforementioned Mercadona shopping centers also started selling fried eggs last year caused the same discussions regarding environmental pollution and people’s laziness to cook the simplest egg.

123RF.com photo/Eggs

Because the inhabitants of this country every year throw away an average of 34 kg of disposable plastic packaging.

But the Spanish merchants offered packs of 2 eggs. They were a bit different, no fried eggs (Spanish fried eggs) with more browned edges, o grilled eggs (literally Spanish eggs fried on a hot pan).

Their price – 1.80 euros – also received comments. far exceeded The price of a carton of 6 eggs in the same supermarket (1.30 euros).

The package of fried eggs is said to be unopened can stay for 2 weeksfollowing opening the food should be consumed within 10 hours.

15min verdict: missing context. This fried egg was not sold in Mallorca or elsewhere in Spain, but in Paraguay and not in recent weeks, but in 2020.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metait aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More regarding the program and its rules – here.