Dozens of unrefrigerated eggs that Jay Dines, above, was selling at the Nyack farmers market yesterday were deemed unsafe by the county Health Department.

Instead, 120 dozen eggs on sale yesterday at the Nyack farmers market are destined for the trash.

The Rockland County Department of Health ordered the eggs destroyed late yesterday afternoon after an inspector saw that they were unrefrigerated and sitting in the sun.

A check of the internal temperature of an egg showed it was nearly 70 degrees - much higher than the 45 degrees that health codes require for storage of eggs, said John Stoughton, head of food inspection for the Health Department.

"Unrefrigerated eggs increase the chance of growth of pathogens inside," Stoughton said. "We had no choice but to order the destruction of the eggs."

But farmer Jay Dines said his eggs were fresh and safe to eat. The eggs were laid less than 48 hours earlier at his farm in Greene County, N.Y.

"They're fresh eggs," he said, "fresher than anything you'd get in the supermarket."