Sheng Siong Has Responded to Allegations That They Sold Eggs With Dead Embryo Chicks in Their Marsiling Mall Outlet

Before anything, here’s a quick question: do you know how bad a rotten egg smell?

If you don’t, I hope you don’t have to find out. One of us, who has worked in a supermarket before, accidentally took a deep sniff of a tray of rotten eggs while the crew was searching for the source of a strong smell, and he immediately vomited out the cai png he’s had earlier.

We’ve tried asking him to describe it but all he said was, “You won’t believe it.”

Suffice to say, it was really bad.

Which is why this story is rather weird, because remember: my colleague was then looking for the source of the smell because it’s made the whole area stink, so there should’ve been a red flag.

Nevertheless…

Sheng Siong Has Responded to Allegations That They Sold Eggs With Dead Embryo Chicks in Their Marsiling Mall Outlet

According to STOMP, a Stomper’s father had bought two trays of eggs from Sheng Siong Supermarket located in Marsiling Mall.

On the next day, there was a “weird, awful” smell in their living room, and they couldn’t tell where the smell came from.

Sounds a lot like my colleague’s experience, isn’t it?

They then found out that in a tray of eggs, a few of them have burst and the smell became stronger. The Stomper’s husband took one of the cracked eggs and decided to do the unthinkable: he cracked it open.

A “dead embryo chick” was found.

Lest you’re waiting for the image, don’t bother to; that image wasn’t taken, but I’ve taken the liberty to Google one for you.

Look away if you can’t handle graphic images.

Ready? Here you go:

According to the Stomper, they went back to the supermarket, and the supervisor apologised and replaced the eggs.

But their nightmare didn’t end.

They had the new eggs for breakfast, and that night, they got sick with tummy aches and diarrhea, and one of them even vomited twice. The same issue happened as the smell came back, and once again they found a dead embryo chick in one of the eggs.

According to them, the “Expiry Date” was 10 September 2020, but she most probably referred to the “Best Before” date, which means it shouldn’t have “expired”.

They then went back to Sheng Siong and the staff apologised repeatedly, and also agreed that this was unacceptable, and that they would feedback to the supplier.

Sheng Siong has responded to the incident, saying, “We appreciate that the customer has brought this incident to our attention.

“We have removed the batch of eggs from the affected supplier and have refunded the customer.

“We will work closely with the supplier on the matter.”

Now, notice that we mentioned there shouldn’t be any “expiry date”? It’s because most eggs have no expiry date, but “best before” dates. You can watch more about other egg myths in a video we’ve done here (and please subscribe to our YouTube channel, please?):

So, is this…common?

Well, yes and no.

“Embryo Eggs” Not Uncommon

Rotten eggs are bad, and they’re not safe to consume. The main risk of eating rotten eggs is Salmonella infection, which is a form of food poisoning. This happens when the bacteria grow on both the shell of the egg and also within the egg white and egg yolk.

However, eggs with embryos are actually…not uncommon.

In fact, it has a name: balut, and after it’s boiled, it’s sold as street food in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia.

Outside of the Philippines, it’s usually considered a novelty or taboo food, but if you’ve a Filipino friend, he or she would probably tell you that it tastes goody.

But us Singaporeans just want normal eggs, so what gives? Why are there chicks in your eggs?

You see, a majority of eggs aren’t fertilised, and this is even more common for mass-produced eggs because there might not be any male chickens (i.e. erm…cocks lah) around the hens to ensure that the eggs aren’t fertilised. According to The Guardian, some of them killed the male chicks once they’re born so that they won’t hang around and have multiple dates with hens.

But some cock (geddit?) might just enter the female-only area, and there we have it: one or two fertilisied eggs in thousands of other eggs.

This usually happens in a small farm as flocks of chickens might not be separated that well, leading to “cock-running-around” incident.

But as long as you cook them, you should be fine, though the thought of it isn’t exactly…palatable.

And also, if you want to check if an egg is fertilized, don’t just look for “blood spots” within the eggs, as that doesn’t indicate that the egg is fertilisied.

Instead, you should see this on the egg yolk:

Now, isn’t this an egg-citing and informative article?