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 18 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.
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.
One key thing to note is that I have found that 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.
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. It may also be quite watery in an egg that has gone bad.
- 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.
Spotted a blood spot on the yolk? 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.
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.
Looking For 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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