How To Test Eggs For Freshness With This Simple Technique
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Don’t unnecessarily waste another egg again – here’s an incredibly simple egg freshness test you can do to find out if eggs are good or bad to eat.
Did you know that in the UK alone we bin 720 million eggs a year? According to WRAP (the government’s waste advisory body), 29% of Britons throw away eggs because they are past their best-before date.
However, best-before dates, which relate to food quality, are not the same as use-by dates, which relate to food safety. This means that eggs are often still perfectly safe to eat for some time after the date on the packaging has passed.
Admittedly, when it comes to items like eggs, it can feel a little scary cooking an egg that’s past its best-before date. I was so worried about food poisoning that I’ll admit that I was one of the 29% who used to throw their eggs away when the date on the box was up.
However, when my partner and I first moved in together, he was aghast that I would do such a thing.
He grew up on a smallholding, where his parents kept free-range ducks and chickens. They would often find eggs that the poultry had laid in unusual places. There was no way of knowing how long they had been there for. No printed dates on those eggs!
He showed me a great tip to test if your eggs are fresh or not. It is really easy to do and is incredibly handy to keep up your sleeve so you can avoid binning perfectly edible eggs. It hasn’t failed us in over 19 years, so I thought I’d share my tried and tested tips with you today, to help you avoid food waste.
How To Test If Eggs Are Fresh
To test if eggs are fresh, simply take your uncooked and uncracked egg and gently place it in a large glass of cold water.
Next, observe whether the egg sinks to the bottom of the glass or floats to the top. My photo below shows you exactly what to look for:
You can tell if your egg is good to eat quite easily. As you can see from the photo, eggs that are potentially safe to eat will sink to the bottom of the glass. Meanwhile, eggs that float to the surface are not safe to eat.
One key thing to note is that I have found that if eggs have hairline cracks in them, then they will sink, even if they are off. This is because water gets into the egg, making it heavier. As such, always check your eggs for cracks before testing them.
Why This Method Works
Wondering how it works? Off eggs float because pockets of air form in them as the egg goes off. It’s these pockets of air that make them float in water. Eggs that are potentially safe to eat don’t have these pockets of air. This makes them sink to the bottom of the glass.
Other Key Egg Freshness Indicators
The egg float test is one way to test if your egg is potentially safe to eat. To be on the safe side, there are always two other key checks I do – even on eggs that have sunk to the bottom of the glass. These allow me to be absolutely certain that an egg is safe for consumption:
The Sniff Test
Once you’ve cracked open the egg, sniff it to see if it smells fresh or not. Off or rotten eggs have quite a sulfurous smell, not too dissimilar to a really bad fart! Eggs that are good to eat give off no smell.
The Visual Inspection
Next, take a look at the eggs once you’ve cracked them open to see how fresh they are. Visually, an egg gives several clues if it’s off:
- The Yolk – If the egg is off, the yellow yolk will lie flat, compared to the slightly raised or domed way the yolk of a fresh egg will sit. In off eggs, the yolk may also be quite watery.
- The Egg White – In an off egg, the egg white (known as the albumen) will also be very runny, almost like water. In a fresh egg, this will be more gelatinous. The egg white should also be clear. If it looks pink, green, or iridescent, then it’s also a sign that the egg is bad.
Discard any eggs that fail on any of the above points. And for eggs that are safe to eat, as always, make sure you cook them thoroughly to avoid the risk of salmonella.
What About Blood?
Spotted a blood spot on the yolk of your egg? Don’t worry, it’s not a sign of spoilage. It’s caused by a ruptured blood vessel in the chicken at the time of ovulation. If cooked properly, then the egg is safe to eat.
What To Do With Off Eggs
If you have off eggs, then it can feel like a terrible waste. To help minimise this waste, you can discard the yolk. The shells can then be crushed and added to your composter or garden. This adds essential nutrients to your soil. The shells can also be broken up and used as a natural slug deterrent.
More Food Waste Tips
I’ve got loads more food waste tips to help you out:
- My failsafe tip on how to tell if milk is bad.
- The foods you didn’t know you could freeze (eggs are in there!).
- How to freeze fresh herbs.
- Ten easy tips to reduce your food waste.
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Thank you for passing along this food tip. I had no idea until I read this post. I occasionally consume expired eggs.
Lovely omelette from amazing large out of date eggs! Wendy your so right sniff each egg first (as we did) one double yoke too. A first for our son. So i will be checking out other dated foods from now on. Fantastic website and we thank you xx
gEggs past the BBDate. 6 sooooper sized eggs about to be omelette. We’ve done your test and all sunk to bottom of the glass. If we die of salmonella we won’t be back online lol xx
You should sniff the eggs too – and if they smell in any way off then don’t eat them.
True, I won’t keep an egg that been the least bit damaged either
By the time the eggs get to the store they are not fresh.. and I believe it like I’ve heard before, they could be weeks old by the time you get them , I have left eggs on the counter for weeks and then my frigerator for months and they’re still good.
I just taught my wife this and she was likely to chuck them away thankyou you saved a very hungry egg loving Scottish family lol
Glad I could help! :)
Fresh eggs have will have less bacteria than ones that are past the best before date. The NHS say “the quality of the egg will deteriorate and if any salmonella bacteria are present, they could multiply to high levels and could make a person ill.”
True, I won’t keep an egg that been the least bit damaged either
My question is if they are bad after they half float but don’t flip over on their side so I’m taking the plunge. If I die there will be no way to inform readers. Do older eggs carry a higher risk of samonella or just a risk of being rotten?
If in any doubt a rotten egg will smell really bad – it’s quite a sulphurous smell – so don’t eat it! If it smells fine, and the float test suggests its ok then I would personally eat it, but it’s up to you. Older eggs don’t carry a higher risk of salmonella – salmonella is passed to eggs from the chicken so just as commonly occurs in fresh eggs as older eggs. When I say commonly, it’s something like 1 in 10,000 eggs that is thought to contain salmonella.
Well I guess I’m glad I Cam across this article but have a question I tested a fresh egg and one that was past it’s due date one floated completely so was no comparison but the others, I would say half floated the fresh egg went down and laid on it’s side all the other questionable eggs either floated or they sat upright not off the bottom of the glass but I suspect any-day now they will be complete floaters these can’t be safe to eat can they?
If in any doubt, crack the egg open, visually inspect it and give it a sniff – rotten eggs have a smell that you can never doubt!!
I think your blog is so rad!!
Good Article! Just been checking out the blog for the first time and I’m really pleased to see you sharing this advice. I produce free range eggs for sale from my own chickens as part of my sustainable food delivery service anfd I never waste an egg, even the cracked ones are eaten by either myself or the dog! I never let the eggs get old enough for it to be a problem and my customers tend to buy them weekly so they aren’t sitting there very long at all but eggs will last ages. I don’t date my eggs as they are always fresh but the only guarantee is to buy fresh from local producers and avoid the supermarket if possible! Another good tip is to give the egg a little shake by your ear and if it rattles it is likely bad. Really enjoyed coming across this article as I hate food waste too!
That is a fab tip thank you! I have never eaten an egg past its date, but I guess now I know what to look for I might give it a go. I guess the name is in the title: best before. There is a different between dates, best before means it may not be at its best, whereas use by is more of a definite don’t eat past this date. I found this useful article on moneysavingexpert some years ago, but didn’t think to apply to eggs at the time:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheap-supermarket-shopping#match
Scroll to the “don’t be a waster section”.
Great article – thanks for sharing Katrina!
Yes, meat’s a whole other kettle of fish!
I know some people who throw things out as soon as they reach the best before date – no matter how it looks or smells – seems crazy to waste perfectly good food! And oh yes, my freezer is my best foodie friend! :)
The only thing I ever abide by dates on is fresh chicken. Everything else I go on smell and look. As a society, we waste so much food unnecessarily these days and it really bugs me. If it’s fruit and veg beyond rescuing (even in smoothie form!) I put it out for the creatures in the garden or at least try and compost it. And, the freezer is you friend :)
I always put my unused fruits & veggies out also. What the animals don’t want just adds to the soil. Non-veg, unspoiled leftovers I always put out for the animals, too. As an older woman I used to work for said her father taught her to “never waste anything that another person or animal can eat. The sheer amount of food Americans waste is overwhelming, especially when humans in our own Country and more worldwide literally starve to death.
Oh, I knew this one and always do this with eggs past their sell by date before using them :)
:) It’s a proper granny tip – seems it’s been handed down to my other half through generations!
Just yesterday I found 7 eggs past their best before date (I think it was the 28th of July) in the fridge, and following a simple smell test I made waffles. But this is such as great tip, thanks for sharing !
My pleasure! The beauty of eggs is that as the smell so bad when they are off then it’s hard to go wrong with them!