How to tell if an egg is off in seconds with this clever hack
- Graphic reveals how an egg will float in water depending on how fresh it is
- The freshest eggs will lie on their side at the bottom of the water
- One and two-week-old eggs will float with the pointed end facing down
- Rotten eggs however will just float straight to the top
With the recent news that Brits throw away 720 million eggs a year because of best before date fears, it’s time we educate ourselves on how to know if an egg is good or bad.
The British Egg Industry Council announced that, though the sale of eggs increased four per cent since the previous year — selling 7.2 billion in 2018 — an alarming number were going to waste at a cost of £139 million.
Unlike other foods, which emanate a bad smell or sport some suspicious mould or other growth, it’s particularly hard to tell what lies beneath an egg’s hard shell.
There is a very handy trick, however, that can easily tell you if one has gone off without the need for cracking it open first.
This graphic shows you how you can tell how fresh your eggs are without cracking them open: all you need to do is put them in water
All you need for the very easy and cost-free hack is a bowl of cold water.
Simply pop any eggs that you suspect may be rotten in the bowl and watch them closely. There are four different ways an egg will settle in the bowl, depending on how fresh it is.
The freshest eggs will lie at the bottom of the bowl, resting on its side. Those that are a week old will tilt at an angle, pointed end downwards, as if the bottom of the egg is trying to float away.
On the left is a fresh egg as it is lying at the bottom on its side; on the right is an egg that’s probably about two weeks old as it is floating upright with the pointed end at the bottom
Two-week-old eggs will float with the pointed end at the bottom, but this time the egg will have settled in an upright position.
Finally, rotten eggs will simply float to the top — this is a sure sign that you should throw these in the bin, no matter what the best before date says.
Research by the council found that around one in three consumers rely on best before dates and fewer than one in four know how to check freshness using a bowl of water.
‘If eggs sink to the bottom and lay flat on their sides, they’re very fresh,’ a spokesman said. ‘If they’re less fresh but still good to eat, they’ll stand on one end at the bottom of the bowl. If they float to the surface, they’re no longer fresh enough to eat.’