Easy Tips: How to tell if your eggs are bad?

This is not an article to talk about the many advantages of eating local, organic and free-range eggs. If you’d like to read more about that, you can read my article Why each egg matters.

Today I’m starting a new series called Easy Tips, to give you random tips to make your life easier and healthier. Today’s tip is in the kitchen.

How to know if your egg is bad?

This is an old trick, anyone can do it, and it might save you from eating an egg that is way past its prime, and could make you sick if you eat it.

Obviously there’s always the classic indicators when you crack the egg open that can tell you if it’s not the freshest and perhaps you shouldn’t eat it, like if the egg white is way too watery, or the egg yolk is strange-looking and breaks way too easily, but what about knowing if the egg is bad even before breaking it open?

It’s simple:

Fill a large bowl with water (tap water is fine since it’s not for drinking or eating), gently put the egg in the bottom of the bowl.

• Does it stay at the bottom, or near the bottom? You’re good to go!
• Does it immediately float to the surface? If so, then throw it out.

Check out picture below.

Why?

As it gets older, the air cell in the egg grows larger through the porous eggshell, and that’s why it floats. I’ve done the test several times with various eggs, the faster the egg comes up to the surface, the older it is, and therefore not fresh anymore. If it’s near the bottom, but floating a bit, I prefer to use them in cooking/baking. I keep the super fresh ones to eat soft-boiled, hard-boiled, poached, or fried.

Most eggs have a lifespan of about 6 weeks, however, unless you buy them directly at the farm like I do, the ones you buy at the grocery store are usually 2+ weeks old already, 1 week old at the very best, so they don’t last as long.

That’s it! A super simple trick to take the guessing work out!

ECP xo