Simply fill a bowl with cold tap water and place your eggs in it. If they sink to the bottom and lay flat on one side, they are fresh and good to eat. A bad egg will float because of the large air cell that forms at its base. Any floating eggs should be thrown out.
To conduct a float test, fill a bowl or cup with water (it should be big enough to fully submerge your egg). Gently place your egg inside and see if it sinks or floats. If it floats, it's old and you may want to toss it.
The theory is that, as an egg ages, the air pocket inside it grows larger, buoying an old egg to the surface. But, according to Dr. Schaffner, “there is no scientific basis for the egg float test.” So experimenting to see if your egg sinks or swims is not a reliable way to measure its quality.
Information. Eggs may be refrigerated three to five weeks from the day they are placed in the refrigerator. The "Sell-By" date will usually expire during that length of time, but the eggs will be perfectly safe to use. Always purchase eggs before the "Sell-By" or EXP (expiration) date on the carton.
As long are they are kept refrigerated at 45 °F or lower, fresh shell eggs are safe to be consumed four to five weeks beyond the carton's Julian date (the date eggs were packed).
You can eat eggs past their expiration date. Just be sure to keep your eggs egg-cellent by storing them correctly. If you don't know if an egg is good or not, you can try the float test or give it a whiff. If it doesn't pass the test, throw it away.
An egg can float in water when its air cell has enlarged sufficiently to keep it buoyant. This means the egg is old, but it may be perfectly safe to use. Crack the egg into a bowl and examine it for an off-odor or unusable appearance before deciding to use or discard it.
To check if it is safe to eat, crack the egg in a bowl and check for an off-odor or unusual appearance before determining whether to use or discard. A spoiled egg has a terribly unpleasant odor when you crack it open — whether raw or cooked.
Old eggs should always be disposed of responsibly to avoid contamination and food-borne illnesses. You can choose to compost, feed them to animals, recycle them at local centers, or throw them in the trash. Eggs with foul odors or discoloration may be spoiled and should not be eaten.
A general rule, unwashed eggs will last around two weeks unrefrigerated and about three months or more in your refrigerator. If you're experiencing an egg boom, it's smart to refrigerate any unwashed fresh eggs you aren't planning to eat immediately. This will help them last longer.
What happens if you use old eggs. If you use older eggs, the cakes will not rise as well and pavlovas will be flatter than they should be. Generally, the cakes will still work as long as you get some volume from beating, they just won't be as tall or light-as-air as they should be.
Never use cracked or dirty eggs in the preparation of food. Dirty eggs may have harmful Salmonella bacteria on the shell. Cracked eggs allow Salmonella to enter and grow inside the egg. However even eggs with clean, uncracked shells can pose a risk if handled incorrectly.
Adding white vinegar or apple cider vinegar to your pot of water allegedly results in softer, easier-to-peel eggshells.
“As long as the egg hasn't gone bad, there's no reason you can't still enjoy it,” says nutritionist Keri Gans, RD, author of The Small Change Diet. That's right: You do not have to trash that carton of eggs just because it's past the sell-by date.
Some egg cartons have sell-by dates on them, while others have expiration dates. Neither should be regarded as an indication of when the eggs are no longer safe to use. Both the Food and Drug Administration and Egg Safety Center agree that eggs are usually good for several weeks past the stamped date.
The expiration date on your carton of jumbo eggs is just there to ensure quality. So if you crack 'em open after the date has passed, you may notice they don't taste as good, but you're not at risk of illness. In short, you can eat eggs two months out of date. It'll be fine.
As a result, if you choose to use eggs after the best before date has past, make sure that they look and smell normal (odourless), and use in baking or other dishes where they will be thoroughly cooked. Throw away any eggs that smell rotten or bad upon cracking the shell.
Here's What Fresh Eggs Daily Tells Us:
By law, an egg can be sold for up to 30 days after the date it was put in the carton. And farmers have up to 30 days to go from when the egg is laid to the carton. That means those supermarket eggs can be two months old by the time you buy them.
According to the USDA, whole raw eggs in the shell will last three to five weeks in the refrigerator. They'll keep for four to five weeks beyond the pack date, and about three weeks beyond when you brought them home.