Feature Articles
Keeping Safe Eggs Safe
Janet Hackert, Regional Nutrition and Health Education Specialist, University of Missouri Extension
Eggs are an easy-to-prepare high-protein food. Whether
they are colored for Easter eggs or used for a light
evening meal after a big Sunday dinner, keeping them
safe is essential.
Manufacturers are not required to put an expiration
or sell-by date on egg cartons but a smart consumer can
still know if eggs are safe to use or not. Instead of an
expiration date, egg cartons must show when the eggs
were packed. So, for example, the carton may have “P
1692 070 SELL BY Apr 8” on it. The last 3 digits of the
first number indicate the pack date, using the Julian
calendar. In the Julian dating system, the number
represents the consecutive days of the year. January 1st
would be written as 001, and December 31st would be 365
(or 366 in a leap year). So this carton was packed on
day number 070, or March 11th. The American Egg Board
says that fresh shell eggs can be stored in their
cartons in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 weeks beyond the
pack date without significant quality loss. So these
eggs would be good until April 8th or even as long as
April 15th.
Manufacturers often do put a sell-by or expiration
date to indicate when grocers should pull the product
from the shelf if not yet sold. To carry a USDA
grademark, this date must be no more than 30 days after
the packing date. This means that eggs should be used
within a week of the date on the carton. In this
example, the date is April 8. That is 4 weeks after the
packing date; so again, these should be used by April
15th at the latest.
Knowing that eggs are safe is the first step. Keeping
them safe is the second.
- Be sure to keep eggs refrigerated to prolong their safe use. If real eggs are to be used for Easter festivities, color them and keep refrigerated; even hard-cooked eggs should not be out of the refrigerator for more than a total of two hours.
- If there is going to be an egg hunt, use plastic eggs that won’t spoil out of the fridge.
- Don’t eat uncooked or undercooked eggs, whether a runny fried egg or raw cookie dough. Salmonella continues to be a danger that can be avoided by cooking eggs thoroughly.
For more information, contact Janet Hackert at 660-425-6434 or go to http://www.aeb.org/.
Last Updated 9/12/08
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