Telltale signs that your eggs have gone bad and you shouldn’t eat them
by Anne WangechiExpired eggs can cause salmonella infection
Do you usually test if your eggs have gone bad before cooking? Now, if you have just been cracking them directly into the pan without examining them, you might be putting yourself at the risk of salmonella infection.
While the eggs you buy at supermarkets might have an expiry date, those we get from local kiosks do not have an expiry date. So, then, how can you be so sure that they are not already expired? And how do you know how long to keep them before they go bad? See, that’s why it’s always necessary to test if your eggs are bad before cooking them.
So then, before you go ahead and consume eggs that have gone bad, perform these simple tests to determine if they are still fit for consumption:
1. The sniff test
You know that sulfur-like smell that rotten eggs produce? When eggs are really bad, you can feel the pungent smell even without cracking them. If you can’t smell any sulfur but you suspect they have gone bad, crack them open. If they smell like sulfur, don’t even try to cook them. They are bad already.
2. The insides are discoloured
Maybe your egg doesn’t smell. But what is the inside like? The yolk should be yellowish or a lighter shade of yellow depending on what feeds the chicken was given. If the yolk or the whites are discoloured or they have some spots with strange colours, then your egg might be bad.
3. The shake method
Hold the egg close to your ear, shake it and listen for any noises. If you can feel the liquids swishing from the inside, that egg is bad. For a fresh egg, you shouldn’t hear the noises when you shake the egg.
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4. Float and sink method
This is probably the most common method to test if your eggs are still fit for consumption. Eggs are porous meaning that the liquids inside them evaporate with time through the shell. This leaves the eggs lighter and when put in a bowl of water, they float. Fresh eggs, on the other hand, will sink since the insides are still intact.