[pverheggen]

It addresses this in the article, but in countries that wash the bacterial layer off (like the US), they have to be refrigerated. This is to minimize salmonella contamination, EU deals with this by vaccinating hens against salmonella instead.

[TN1ck]

Does the same apply for cooked eggs? I would have thought all bacteria is gone from the shell after the process, making EU and US cooked eggs virtually the same. A short search seems to agree with that.

[dekhn]

it is very, very unlikely that a fully cooked egg that sat out overnight would have enough bacterial growth (and toxin production by bacteria) to represent a threat to a normal person with a typical immune system.

If the egg had bacteria already growing in it (which is also unlikely) then it's possible that enough of the bacterial toxins could accumulate and be inside when you eat it.

There are probably a number of extremely rare scenarios which would modify the situation but this article includes a lot of words and facts only to come to the unlikely conclusion.