Are Eggs Safe To Eat Past The Expiration Date?
Eggs are considered safe to eat after the expiration date as they do not pose a direct harm to your health. However, it should be kept in mind that their quality will decrease with time which would be indicated by a change in their appearance, taste or smell. It is advised, though, to eat them before the expiration date.
If you store eggs in a refrigerator, they are safe to eat for up to three weeks past their expiration date. This means even if you grabbed the carton with the sold-by time stamped on it, it is theoretically still possible that you will be fine eating them at least one more week. If eggs only have the sell-by date, you might want to count on around 30 days past their sold-by date to ensure they are still fresh.
The sell-by date typically goes from three to five weeks, but so long as you adhere to this window, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says, the eggs are completely safe for consumption. With the right kind of storage, eggs can remain fresh up to five weeks after the date on the carton. Raw eggs will retain good quality for approximately 3 weeks after the date sell by, use by, best by, or expiration on the carton, assuming continued refrigeration. Regardless of what the actual expiration date is, according to USDA, the best time to store uncooked eggs in their shells is between 3 and 5 weeks.
Once eggs are solidified, they need to be refrigerated (in their shells) within 2 hours of cooking, and used within one week. Once eggs arrive at your house, store eggs in the cartons that came with them, in the cooler section, rather than the doors. For transport, you should try to keep the eggs in the fridge as soon as you wash them, if at all possible.
| Storage | Temperature | Kitchen counter (60-68°F) |
| Kitchen counter | 60-68°F | 2 hours (suggested by USDA) |
| In the refrigerator | 32-34°F | 3-5 weeks |
| Freezer | 0°F | 1 year |
Even if you do keep eggs in the fridge, it is always worth checking if they are gone by the time you are ready to eat. That is, if you are not keeping close tabs on how long your eggs are sitting in the fridge, they could completely spoil before you can use them. To make the most out of eggs, check their shelf life before buying, so that they are as fresh as possible when you take them home, says Benjamin Chapman, food safety expert.
The sell-by date isnothing related to egg safety, says food safety expert Benjamin Chapman, PhD, professor at NC State University. Many people rely on a date on a package to let them know when a product has gone bad, including eggs, but the sell-by dates are usually somewhat arbitrary, and they are not the shelf-life dates. First, that date stamped onto a lot of eggs cartons is really the sell-by date, which is technically different than the expiration date, and is not required on these cartons by federal law.
By the way if you’re interested in What Happens If You Eat Expired Turkey, then check out this article.
Use of both sell-by or expiration date (EXP) is not required federally, but can be required by states, as defined in an eggs laws for the state in which an egg is sold. Next, refer to your Expiration Date (it can be listed as either EXP or Sell-By ), which is regulated by USDA as being not later than 30 days from your eggs package date.
EXP, or Sell By, should be set at least 30 days after pack date, putting your eggs at 4 weeks old at that point. Egg cartons that bear USDAs Grading Shield, which indicates that they came from USDA-inspected plants, have to bear Pack Date (the day that the eggs were washed, graded, and placed into cartons). Image by Sturgis To get a sense of how long eggs last, take a look at the date on a carton with a package date, which is shaped like Julian dates, followed by the date sold.
As long as it is kept refrigerated at 45degF or lower, a fresh egg with the shells is safe for consumption for four to five weeks past its cartons Julian date (the day that the eggs were packed). Fresh shell eggs may be stored in their cardboard boxes in the refrigerator for 4 to five weeks past that date without significant quality loss. Fresh eggs do not last as long, but you still may be able to eat them for three to five weeks after purchasing them, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
To learn about Do You Have To Use Chicken By The Sell By Date, then check out my another article.
Even after that huge pancake breakfast on Sunday, you might find you have a surplus of eggs, so we do not blame you if some of those are well past their shelf life. We cannot recommend eating our eggs past their best-by dates, and we realize expiring eggs do happen occasionally. Unless you have taken steps to prolong your eggs shelf life, your best indication of how long eggs are safe to eat is their expiration date.
The longer it is since the expiration date, the greater your risk!1. As a result, if you decide to use eggs past their best-by date, be sure that they appear to look and smell fine (odorless), and use them in baked goods or other dishes in which they will be cooked thoroughly.5,6 Throw out any eggs that smell moldy or worse when cracked. Official advice from the Food Standards Agency states that eggs may be eaten past their best before date, provided that they are thoroughly cooked until the yolks and whites are solid, or used in dishes where they will be thoroughly baked, like cake. In 2011, the Food Safety Authority said consumers should not discard eggs immediately after that date, because some eggs may still be fresh after two days. Both the FDA and Egg Safety Center agree eggs are generally safe for weeks past their stamped dates.
One way to determine a reasonable use-by date is to count from four to five weeks after you clean and pack your eggs. By law, eggs have to be in their final consumers possession for 21 days after they are laid, so that gives the British people seven days to consume them. Eggs may be sold legally for up to one month past the date on the cardboard, at which point it is effectively illegal, but they are still perfectly edible for two more weeks, longer if hard-boiled and kept in their shells.
How late can you eat eggs after expiration date?
Your carton of giant eggs has an expiration date only for quality assurance. So even though they might not taste as nice if you open them beyond the expiry date, you won’t get sick. In essence, eggs that are two months old can still be eaten. It’ll be okay.
What happens if you eat out of date eggs?
The main risk of eating rotten eggs is salmonella infection, which can result in fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. One can reduce their risk of getting salmonella by storing eggs in the refrigerator, discarding any with cracked shells, and properly frying them before consuming them.