How to Tell a Bad Egg

November 14, 2008 at 11:16 AM by Cafe Kim - Comments (5)

And, speaking of eggs (in our Egg Sausage Strata below), BabyGsMaMa13 had a great question about raw eggs: How do you tell if an egg has gone bad? As someone who tends to keep her eggs way past their expiration date, I was intrigued by the question and set out to investigate. My research turned up an easy water trick you can do to tell if they are still good.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Web site, raw eggs can last for only 3-5 weeks in the refrigerator (oops, this is news to me). You can submerge a raw egg in water to tell how old it is. A fresh egg sinks to the bottom; an old egg floats to the top. It goes on to say that an old egg is not necessarily bad—and recommends that you crack the egg into a bowl and check for an unpleasant odor to tell if it's spoiled. But who wants to smell a bad egg? I think I'll just discard the floating eggs and call it a day.

FILED UNDER: food, food safety, healthy choices, suggestions