To use eggs a few days past their best before date...

[Starlet29]

A light hearted one!

My local supermarket hasn’t had eggs for weeks now. Managed to get some in village shop which are now 4 days past their best before date. I say absolutely fine to eat. Will put them in a bowl of water and do the sink test. Other half says no and went to bin them.

Surely 4 days after a best before date is absolutely fine and right now we can’t afford just to bin food!

Aibu to want to eat the eggs?

I am aware there are far more important things to worry about right now but with DS showing symptoms so we can’t go out and get anymore!

I use eggs well after the best before date. They don't poach or fry so well as the white is watery but absolutely fine for other uses.

They will be fine, I regularly use eggs several weeks past the date on the box, the ones I had for my breakfast this morning were dated 13 March and tasted fine. If an egg is off, you will know as soon as you crack it.

I've found eggs last weeks after their date. The white gets runnier but they taste the same. Never understood peoples obsessions with the date on the packet. I've had food go mouldy before the date and food last well after.
If they dont float they're fine. If you dont think the float test is good enough then crack one in to a bowl, you'll know if its gone bad

Our eggs come from our chickens. They last months - not that they’re left that long. You’ll know if it’s off as soon as you crack it - the smell of sulphur lingers for ages. 4 day will be fine

It’s just a best before date. So you won’t get a perky looking yolk on a fried egg. Absolutely fine for scrambling, omelettes and cakes. My personal rule is to use within 3 weeks of best before dates. I have never had a bad egg yet.

Best before isn’t the same as use by, and even use by’s need a bit of common sense applied. They’ll be fine.

Do the float test just to check and then use them. We've used eggs quite a few weeks after their stamped date and not had a problem. We now get eggs without dates stamped on them from a local seller so the float test is the most reliable way of checking.

I'm eating yoghurts with a bb date of 1 March.
I'm not going to worry about an egg a few days over.

As pp says, you will KNOW if is off.
Your whole house will know!

OP, people like your OH is the reason I can't wait until those dates and knocked on the head. So wasteful. Eggs for yourself then

Eggs last for ages.

I have eggs that I’m working through now that are 3 weeks past their BBE. They are absolutely fine.

I wouldn’t even float them that close to their date. If it helps reassure anyone that eggs last ages and ages:

I once had a chicken laying outside the nest boxes who laid 36 eggs before I managed to locate her nest. This was in that summer two years ago that was 25°C+ for weeks and week on end in a south facing garden. Bearing in mind they don’t lay once a day, more like every 1.5 days there were a considerable number of those eggs which were approaching 2 months old out in blazing sunshine in the middle of summer. Every single one was absolutely fine when floated. Hardly moved off the bottom.

I have hens, eggs keep for ages. If I ever buy shop eggs (rare) I’ve used them weeks after the date on the box.

While I’m at it, don’t keep them in the fridge, they should be room temp.

@NoParticularPattern same! My broodies keep hiding them and I’ve not had a bad one yet.

We did the float test on eggs that were almost two months out of date, expecting them to float. They didn’t.

They were fine.

When I did my A level biology we did an experiment looking at the effects on eggs over time. We bought a box and cracked one every week for 6 weeks. They got very watery but none went bad.

Four days !? I regularly use eggs 4 weeks past the best before date.

Eggs are not a food that can go off without you noticing. Don’t crack them directly into a big bowl of expensive / hard to replace ingredients if you are at all worried but other than that, go for it. If eggs needed a use by date, that’s what the government would require them to have.

Well due to an unfortunate egg hoarding incident I have just eaten an egg 6 days past it's BB date.
Currently still hale and hearty, if I go quiet later today you can infer it was a bad choice

I’m hacked off that I bought a box from a health food store and decanted them into my egg box - of course the buggers didn’t have any date stamps did they (and I didn’t notice)? I have no idea if their sell by date (will need to pop them into water to see if they float).

I’m always perplexed that some people seem to think that foodstuffs come with an internal calendar/clock that keeps track and flips a switch at midnight so that they know to now be officially rotten and dangerous.

I suppose a lot of people don’t remember (or weren’t around) in the days before foods came with those dates!

I always say use your eyes and nose. That’s what we used to do way back when (and it’s a family joke that my sister sees ‘use by’ dates as a direct challenge).

Based on past experience you'll be fine. I second the float set and the cracking into a separate cup though and also the suggestion of scrambling rather than boiling.

Yes you'll know if eggs are off. In my experience eggs are fine weeks after the bb date.

I've literally just finished an egg butty with eggs that had a date of March 20th. They were very yummy.

Do the float test! Hopefully the shocking amount of food wasted will be lessened by the current circumstances.

Of course fine!

Agree with keeping them at room temperature. Also, they're much easier to peel as hard boiled eggs if they're a bit older. I have chickens and keep a box or two aside for a couple of weeks if I'm making pickled eggs.