When Dining At A Breakfast Buffet, Consider Skipping These 3 Egg Dishes

One of the best parts of staying at an all-inclusive hotel isn't the clean sheets, cozy accommodations, or in-room Keurig: It's the breakfast buffet laid out for you in the morning. Depending on how fancy the hotel is, you may find a simple array of bread, toast, and prepackaged yogurts, or you could find an elaborate spread of custom egg dishes and meats, and the all-important waffle station.

Although you can add some of these items to your plate, there are some breakfast buffet items that you're better off skipping. In an interview with Food Republic, food safety professional and founder of QuEST 4 Food Campbell Mitchell said that scrambled eggs, egg-based dishes like quiche, and anything involving Hollandaise sauce should be expressly avoided. The main reason for this is that these dishes can be breeding grounds for foodborne illnesses, including bacteria, while eggs that are improperly handled or cooked may harbor Salmonella that can make you sick. And he's not the only professional to caution against these foods; Anthony Bourdain famously cautioned against restaurant Hollandaise sauce for similar reasons.

Since bacteria and foodborne illnesses are not visible to the naked eye, it's hard to tell whether these breakfast buffet options are safe to eat. However, one tip that you can follow is eating earlier. Eating later in the buffet window is one of the worst choices because not only will you be hit with lines, but it also gives the bacteria more time to colonize foods like eggs. The USDA recommends tossing perishable food that's been left out for more than two hours, so you can assume that the earlier you get to the buffet, the better.

Other food that you should avoid on the buffet line includes that waffle station — cue the sighs. While it might be fun to prepare your own waffle from scratch, you never really know how often that batter dispenser is cleaned and refilled. Instead, stick to shelf-stable cereals, products kept in refrigerators (like yogurt), and whole fruit like apples, bananas, and oranges. 

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Food Republic.