Cultural Differences in Food

Miyano Masui, Miai Kawahara,Kazane Kubo of the English Groups

1. Introduction
Our team researched the food culture of foreigners as it relates to eating raweggs. Our team found that foreigners tend to avoid eating raw eggs. Our teammade three hypothesizes for this behavior: differing sanitary conditions, uniquegeographic features, and higher prices of eggs in Japan. Our team found that
there is a higher possibility of breeding salmonella in foreign countries than inJapan, and that can lead to the fact that people in foreign countries tend toavoid eating raw eggs.

2. Better sanitary conditionsFirst, our team can eat eggs safely by cooking them, even if salmonella ispresent. Our team should cook eggs to kill salmonella in raw eggs. Salmonella ismore prevalent in eggs from other countries compare to Japan. When a hen lays
an egg, its feces sometimes sticks to egg shell. Chicken feces often harbors
salmonella, so it can be dangerous to eat raw eggs. Small children can die fromsalmonella poisoning.

3. Comparison of regulations
Our team compared Japan’s sanitary standards to that of France’s. First, ourteam investigated the sanitary standards in Japan. In Japan, the Japan Egg
Association put people who register as members on Eggs Fair Trading Council
under an obligation to provide safe eggs. Consumers can choose safe eggs bylooking for this mark because those eggs which have the fair mark have beenthoroughly examined.
In Japan, product expiration date is set two or three weeks after an egg waslaid. On the other hand, in France, it is set about one month later. This is a big
difference. In addition, in Japan, chickens are vaccinated. However, in France,
the chickens are not vaccinated. Furthermore, Japan also uses antibiotics onchickens.

4. Geographic location
The terrain of Japan can be the reason why eggs in Japan are safe. Japan isa country consisting of islands and has a lot of high mountains. The possibility of
introducing bacteria from foreign countries is extremely low. The rivers also flow
fast, so it is difficult for bacteria to propagate. Our team hypothesizes thatJapan’s geographical features is one of the reasons why the salmonella
contamination problem is not as bad as the rest of the world.

5. The price of eggs
Our team thought that the price of eggs is higher in other countries than inJapan, so foreigners don’t buy eggs so frequently as in Japan. Our teamresearched the price of eggs in Japan and in France. However, we found no big
difference in the prices of eggs between two countries. Therefore, our teamconcluded that the price of eggs was not related to the reason why they don’t eat
raw eggs in France.

6. Conclusion
In summary, the reasons why raw eggs are not often eaten in France can besaid as follows. First, salmonella is less regulated in France. Second, Japan’s
geographic features have great impacts on suppressing the growth ofsalmonella.
If we have a chance to have a meal with foreigners, we should respect theirfood culture. Our team has examined the situation only in France, but we would
like to examine other countries too and try to find if there are any other reasons
why many foreigners tend to avoid eating raw eggs.

7. References
Itami, Y. (2011). Why Only Japanese People Enjoy Eating Raw Eggs. Trans.
Tokyo: Wanibooks.