Buy only refrigerated eggs. Refrigerate eggs in their original container as soon as you arrive home and use them within 3 weeks for best quality. Discard any cracked or dirty eggs.

Keep clean. The outside shell as well as the egg inside can be contaminated. So, wash hands, surfaces and utensils thoroughly with soap and water both before and after they come in contact with raw eggs or egg-containing foods.

Cook eggs thoroughly. Cook eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm and not runny. Dishes containing eggs should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 °F (use a food thermometer to be sure!); pre-cooked egg dishes like quiche should be reheated to 165 °F before serving. For recipes that call for eggs that are raw or undercooked when the dish is served (like homemade Caesar salad dressing or ice cream), use either eggs that have been treated to destroy Salmonella by pasteurization or another approved method, or pasteurized egg products. When in doubt, ask your grocer!

Serve eggs safely. Keep hot foods hot (140 °F or warmer) and cold foods cold (40 °F or colder) when serving … and just as with any perishable food, don't let any egg dish sit out at room temperature for more than two hours. If it does, discard it.

Check the serving size. All of the nutrition information listed on the Nutrition Facts Label is based on one serving of that food. But, it's common for one package of a food to contain more than one serving.

Consider the calories. If you want to manage your weight (lose, gain, or maintain), pay attention to the calories. The key is to balance how many calories you eat with how many calories your body uses. As a general rule, 400 or more calories per serving for a single food is high and 100 calories is moderate. And remember, if a package contains two (or more) servings and you eat the entire package, you are consuming two (or more) times the number of calories and nutrients listed on the label.

Choose nutrients wisely. You can also monitor your intake of specific nutrients by using the Percent Daily Value(%DV) on the Nutrition Facts Label. This is especially helpful for "nutrients to get less of" such as sodium, saturated fat, and cholesterol, which can increase your risk of developing high blood pressure and heart disease. Follow this easy guideline when looking at nutrients on the label: 5%DV or less of a nutrient means the food is low in that nutrient, and 20%DV or more means it's high!