How To Test Eggs For Freshness

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Best before-end dates on eggs actually cause lots of food waste so this post is going to look at all the ways you can keep your eggs fresher for longer and how to test your eggs for freshness, so you’ll know if they are okay to eat.

How To Test Eggs For Freshness

Food waste is a huge problem – both globally and here in the U.K. Around 30% of all the food produced in the world gets wasted. While it may seem like a problem so big we can’t make a difference as individuals, if everyone took a few small steps to reduce their waste, we’d save a heck of a lot of food!

Research by food waste app Too good oo Go showed many as 720million edible eggs a year are thrown away in the UK because of the best before end date. People tend to stick to it too rigidly not realising that the eggs they’re throwing away are more than likely perfectly safe to consume.

Eggs and Best Before Dates

Eggs are usually fine to eat after the best before end date – especially if they’re going to be in completely cooked such as in a cake or a quiche.

One of the ways I save money on food is buying from the reduced sections and often I am able to pick up very cheap eggs that are on their best before date. This doesn’t bother me as I know they’ll be okay to eat for a few weeks after this date, especially if I keep them in the fridge. It also means I can bake lots of cakes and treats for very little money, which is one of my favourite things to do.

Storing Eggs Safely

Typically eggs kept in the refrigerator will last much longer, around 30-45 days, whereas eggs kept at room temperature stay fresh for 7-10 days.

Keeping the eggs in their cardboard box will actually help protect them and stop them from absorbing odours from other foods. Eggs keep better if stored inside the refrigerator and not in the door, despite that being where manufacturers often place the egg trays.

How To Test Eggs For Freshness – The Water Test

Asking whether an egg is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ always reminds me of the scene in the film ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ where the geese are laying golden eggs for Easter. I think if we were testing those eggs at home we’d need some much bigger glasses!

The water test is one of the easiest ways to test eggs for freshness. Simply plop the egg into a glass of water. If the egg sinks it’s very fresh, if it stands up it’s not fresh but it’s okay to eat. Finally, if it floats it’s not good and should be discarded.

The science behind this is that as an egg deteriorates, gasses begin to build up and form a bubble inside the shell, making it float.

Rancid eggs will smell rotten and have an odd colour to them. Avoid ruining a whole bowl of ingredients with one dodgy egg by cracking older eggs into a cup before adding to the mix. If you crack open a gone-off egg, you’ll know about it!

A Few Final Egg Tips

• Raw eggs can be frozen if you’re worried about them not getting used up. They’ll need to be cracked open and mixed up and then a small amount of sugar or salt will need to be added to prevent the yolks from becoming too gelatinous.See a full guide to freezing raw eggs here. 

• Be aware that damaged or cracked eggs could be gone off, even if they are still in date.

• Hard-boiled eggs give off a strong ‘gassy’ odour when stored in the fridge, this is normal and doesn’t mean the eggs have gone off.

• A cloudy egg white is a sign of freshness, not a sign of the egg has gone bad.

• Run out of eggs? There are actually lots of store cupboard ingredients you can substitute for eggs, including apple sauce and peanut butter.