How to Determine the Freshness of Your Eggs

Test the freshness of your eggs using the flotation test.

If you're one of those people who stores their eggs in the fridge by taking them out of their original egg carton, you may sometimes forget when you purchased them or just how old they are. While the shelf life of an egg is about a month, you can employ techniques to determine if the eggs in your refrigerator are fresh.

Things You'll Need

• Bowl

Instructions

1. Get a bowl and fill it with fresh water. It really doesn't matter whether the water is warm or cold. Just make sure the bowl is deep enough for an egg to sink to the bottom and still be covered in water.

2. Place the desired number of eggs you want to check into the bowl of water and see if any of them float.

3. Conclude that the egg is fresh if it lies on its side at the bottom of the bowl. If the egg stands up at the bottom of the bowl, the egg is fine but you should eat it soon, quickly use it in a baking recipe or hard-boil it for later use. If it floats at the top of the bowl, you need to pitch it as soon as possible. It is no longer fresh.

4. Look at the egg carton if you still have it. Find the packing date. It's a three-digit number that stands for a Julian calendar date. For instance, "001" stands for Jan. 1, and "365" stands for Dec. 31. The age should not be more than five weeks beyond its packing date.

References

• HelpWithCooking.com: How to Test an Egg's Freshness
• What's Cooking America?: How Fresh Are Your Eggs?