Other Ways To Check The Freshness Of An Egg
While the water test is one of the easiest ways to determine an eggs freshness, there are a few other methods that work, too.
A sniff test is the oldest, simplest approach. Simply give your eggs a good sniff. If theyre bad, theyll give off a rotten, sulfurous odor. Sometimes this can be hard to notice when the eggs are in their shell, so feel free to crack the eggs into a bowl and then give them a sniff.
Another approach is to give the eggs a shake. If you hear a sloshing sound, it could mean the yolk is too old and, therefore, watery. A fresh egg wont make any sound at all when you shake it.
How To Tell If An Egg Is Fresh Without Floating It
If you want to keep the bloom intact, shake the egg. If you hear sloshing inside, it has likely gone bad and shouldn’t be eaten. At the very least, it’s old.
And of course if you crack an egg and it smells bad…really bad….or is discolored and cloudy, then it’s obviously no good to eat and needs to be tossed.
What Are The Characteristics Of Fresh Eggs
Eggs are even better at hiding their rottenness than Keyser Soze, H from Line of Duty and The Big Bad Wolf, but there are several methods you can use to tease out their true colours Without a police interrogation or eaten grandma.
How to examine a shell:
- Hold it against bright light and check for air gaps.
- Look for the moving shadow of the yolk. The more it moves around as you shake it, the less fresh the egg.
How to examine the inside of an egg:
- Check the compactness of the yolk. The larger and flatter the yolk, the less fresh the egg. A yolk usually takes up about one-third of the eggs volume.
- If the white is runny and thin, it may be stale. As carbon dioxide leaks out of an ageing egg, the albumen becomes clearer. You want your egg white to be as thick as your grandmas gravy and cloudier than a winters day in the Lake District.
- If you spot a tiny red or brown blemish on the yolk, fear not. These are broken blood vessels that are perfectly safe for human consumption. If anything, they are a sign of freshness, as blood spots tend to fade with age.
When shopping for free-range and organic eggs, look for Laid in Britain accredited eggs and OF& G accredited eggs. These accreditations are awarded to producers, packing stations and retailers who pass stringent tests for:
- The health and welfare of their hens
- The quality and taste of their produce
- The low carbon footprint of their supply chain.
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Testing With A Bowl Of Water
This is the simplest method for testing eggs freshness, and the most reliable. However, I recommend you use this method only for the eggs you intend on using at that moment.
Eggs have a protective membrane or covering on the shell and submersing an egg in water will start to break down that protective layer. If you do not refrigerate your eggs, submerging them and not using them right away can cause them to go bad quicker.
To use this method you simply fill a bowl of water double deep as the egg is tall. There are 3 things that can happen with this method.
If the egg floats to the top of the water, it is old and must be discarded. It is not safe for consumption anymore. Please do not take the chance!
If the egg sinks to the bottom and lays flat on its side, it is less than a week old and extremely fresh. These are the eggs you want to use first!
If the egg stands straight up and down, or bobs, it is probably between 1 and 3 weeks old and is still consumable.
What Is The Best Way To Store Eggs
If you buy your eggs from a supermarket then it is likely that your eggs came from a large egg producing enterprise.
These eggs are best stored in the refrigerator.
You should keep them at the back of the fridge because it has the most stable temperature. If for whatever reason you do not have a fridge, then store your eggs in a cool and dry place such as a cellar or pantry.
If you raise your own eggs you should probably still keep your eggs in the refrigerator for safety.
The biggest concern with storing eggs at room temperature is salmonella.
Salmonella will spread at room temperature and you do not want to run the risk of sickness in your household as salmonella can be deadly.
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How To Test Eggs For Freshness With The Egg Float Test
Maybe you remember this simple experiment from your elementary school science class. Use water to fill a bowl thats deep enough to fully submerge the egg. If the egg floats, its gone bad and should not be used. If it sinks and turns on its side, this means the egg is very fresh. If it sinks but stands on end, its not super fresh, but still safe to eat. This comes in handy when making hard boiled eggs, since older eggs are easier to peel.
Tie Dye Easter Egg Decoration
If you like things a little crazier, tie dye your Easter eggs this year. In less than 10 easy steps, you can give your eggs a tie dyed look that will make them stand out against traditional Easter decorations. They look great, and the kids will absolutely love them! Check it out here: Tie Dye Easter Egg Decorating.
Wondering what you should do with all your decorated eggs when Easter is over? Check out Radas egg-cellent ideas for using eggs, including recipes and cooking tips. Let Radas Kristy Kay show you her best tips and tricks when cooking eggs in the kitchen!
Check out Radas Egg-Cellent Ideas for Eggs including:
1. How to fry an egg
2. How to make an omelet
3. Tips for making hard boiled eggs
and many more!
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How To: Test Eggs For Freshness
Back in the 1860s, eggs didnt come in cartons stamped with expiry dates. So how did people test eggs to make sure they were fresh?
Your eyes and nose are the best tools for determining freshness but you cant smell or see inside an egg before you crack it .
Fortunately, there is another way: THE EGG FLOAT TEST!
How To Prevent Eggs From Going Bad
There are plenty of things you can do to keep your eggs fresh as long as possible. Below are just a few of the best methods to make sure you dont end up consuming a bad egg:
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Check the eggs inside the carton before buying them and avoid eggs that have cracks or dirt.
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Get the eggs home as quickly as possible and dont leave them in a hot car.
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Refrigerate your eggs in the carton they come in to prevent breakages, odour absorption, and water loss.
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Keep eggs in the coldest part of the fridge – usually a middle or lower shelf – rather than in the door where the temperature fluctuates more.
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Dont leave refrigerated eggs out at room temperature for more than two hours. The eggs will sweat and that creates an environment conducive to bacterial growth.
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Keep refrigerated eggs for up to six weeks but always follow the best before date on the carton.
For more information, check out this article on .
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How To Tell If Your Eggs Are Fresh
This article was co-authored by Ollie George Cigliano. Ollie George Cigliano is a Private Chef, Food Educator, and Owner of Ollie George Cooks, based in Long Beach, California. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in utilizing fresh, fun ingredients and mixing traditional and innovative cooking techniques. Ollie George holds a BA in Comparative Literature from The University of California, Berkeley, and a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from eCornell University.There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 86,831 times.
Eggs are a delicious ingredient that can be used in a variety of dishes. Before you cook eggs, it’s important to know whether they are fresh or not. Rotten eggs can lead to food poisoning. To test your eggs for freshness, you can use the float test or smell and examine a cracked egg. If the egg is fresh, you can use it however you want. If you find the egg is rotten, you should throw it away.
The Best Spatula For Eggs
The Rada Non-Scratch Slotted Turner is your ticket to perfectly cooked and served eggs! Made from non-scratch, heat-resistant material, this spatula makes cooking eggs much more convenient. It is backed by a Lifetime Guarantee, and, like all Rada Cutlery products, its entirely made in the USA!
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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 cant make a difference as individuals, if everyone took a few small steps to reduce their waste, wed save a heck of a lot of food!
Research by food waste app Too good Too 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 theyre throwing away are more than likely perfectly safe to consume.
Researchers Say Eggs Are Often Safe To Eat Long After Packaging Date Passes
If an egg sinks to the bottom of a bowl of water and lies sideways, it is very fresh if it stands on one end in bottom of the bowl, it is less fresh but still good to eat. But if it floats to the surface of the water, indicating that air has permeated the shell, it is no longer fresh.
This simple test can be more reliable than the best-before date stamp each egg laid in the EU must bear. But research in the UK has shown that consumers there are throwing away 720 million eggs every year three times more than in 2008 and at a cost of £139 million .
The scale of waste has been blamed on overcautious consumers relying on best-before dates to decide if eggs are fresh enough to eat, and the growing popularity of vegetarian and flexitarian diets has boosted overall sales.
Eggs are a good source of high-quality protein, and Irish registered dietician Paula Mee recommends eating up to eight a week in her recently published book, Mediterranean Mood Food.
Last year sales of eggs in the UK were £7.2 billion a 4 per cent rise on the previous year according to recent figures from the British Egg Industry Council.
The research also showed that 29 per cent of Britons throw away eggs solely because they are past their best before date. However, eggs are often still good and safe to eat long after the date on the packaging has passed. EU legislation requires that the maximum best before date on eggs must be 28 days from when they were laid.
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What About Storing Hard
Its a different story when it comes to as they have a far shorter shelf life than raw shell eggs. This is because the process of boiling an egg removes the protective outer coating of the shell, which makes it more porous and more vulnerable to bacteria and other contaminants.
Hard-boiled eggs can last for up to one week in the refrigerator if they remain in the shell or about five days if peeled. Just make sure you refrigerate the eggs within two hours of cooking.
Try This Easy Method Of Testing The Eggs For Freshness
Here’s an easy way of testing the freshness of an egg.
While purchasing, it must be kept in mind that the goods are always fresh. To check whether the product is too old or not, we look at the expiry date, which tells us when that item was made and how long it will not spoil. But some foods are difficult to test, and one of them is eggs. Do you know why? The eggs found in local shops do not have an expiry date and get spoiled after a particular time. So how to tell if the egg is fresh or not? Here’s an easy way.
Are eggs still edible after the expiry date?
Eggs that are not kept in the refrigerator have a life of seven to ten days, whereas the life of eggs kept in the fridge is thirty to forty-five days. This is the ideal life of eggs.
How do you keep eggs in the fridge?
Eggs can last for five to six weeks if appropriately kept in the fridge. The best way to freeze them is to keep them in the carton in this way, their temperature remains the same. If possible, keep the eggs at a uniform temperature, i.e. 21°C to 23°C in winters and 19°C to 21°C in the summers. Preserving eggs in the freezer reduces the risk of salmonella in addition, this keeps the eggs fresh for a long time.
The easiest way to check expired eggs
To find an egg’s freshness, you have to do a floating test. Do you know it is the best way to check the freshness of eggs without boiling them? Let us know how to take this test.
Can rotten eggs be used?
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How Long Do Eggs Last
The key to keeping eggs fresh for a long time is in proper storage. Eggs that are refrigerated and stored at the correct temperature can last up to 8 weeks after theyâve been laid by the hens.
However, the USDA recommends that eggs kept in a refrigerator for at least 3 to 5 weeks are best in quality. Eggs stored in a freezer for up to a year may still be consumed.
Keep in mind that refrigerating and even freezing eggs will mean a decline in quality.
What Is The Float Test
The egg freshness water test is basically a float test. It is one of the oldest methods of checking egg freshness. Itâs also one of the most accurate methods for finding a fertilized egg that might develop into a chick.
While itâs definitely an old-fashioned trick, itâs been scientifically proven to be accurate!
Grab an egg from your kitchen, and letâs get started!
Egg Floats Test Steps
Image source: happychickencoop
Get a glass or a bowl of cold water. Make sure that the bowl of water is deep enough for the egg to be submerged.
Gently drop the egg onto the water.
Did it sink to the bottom and lay on its side? Congratulations â the egg is still fresh!
Otherwise, if it stands upright or floats at an angle, that means that the egg should be consumed soon if itâs not a hard-boiled egg. The egg is about a week to two weeks old.
An egg that floats on the surface of the water is old and has likely gone bad.
Why do Bad Eggs Float?
This doesnât mean that there is a large air pocket in old eggs, though! Comparing an old and new egg will still have the same buoyancy and volume. The gases produced by an old egg will pass through the porous shell, making the tiny pores larger. This causes the egg to be less dense than water!
Is the Egg Float Test 100% Positive?
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Final Thoughts On Testing Eggs Freshness
Testing eggs freshness is an easy process. Any of the three methods above or a combination of two of the three methods should give you a safe way of telling just how old those eggs are before consuming or cooking and baking with them.
Do you have suggestions for testing eggs freshness? Please share your tips and suggestions below for others!
How To Test If Eggs Are Bad
Robinson has another way of telling whether eggs are out of date, which requires further investigation than the water fresh test.
For this, sight and smell are equally useful, and this can be applied to cooked or raw eggs.
She said: “Crack the egg into a bowl and examine it for an off-odor or unusual appearance before deciding to use or discard it. A spoiled egg will have an unpleasant odor when you break open the shell, either when raw or cooked.”
The unusual appearance of an egg is usually marked by discoloration, as well as a sliminess or powdery texture which could also appear on the shell.
Dullness in color is also a key thing to look out for when testing eggs for freshness.
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How Do You Check The Freshness Of Eggs
One easy way to check the freshness is by holding the egg close to your ear and then shaking it gently. If you do not hear a sound from the interior, then the egg is fresh. But if you hear a swishing sound, it suggests that the air bubble or air cell has already expanded enough for the inside to move and splash around.
Combine this method with either water test or crack test to be certain.