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When has it gone off?

Paul
2008-11-26 04:26:00 UTC

I was reading Weight Watchers Magazine yesterday, for reasons I won’t go into. Oh, all right. It was in the pizza shop while I was waiting for my takeaway. Honest. I thought it was quite amusing, because they had a list of “Ten money-saving tips that will also, coincidentally, help you lose weight” and none of them were “stop buying pizza”.

Amidst all the dross there was a quite useful article in there about food expiry dates, what they mean, and how much leeway you can get away with. Surprisingly candid for a magazine article. Basically, it seems to boil down like this:

Sell By Dates are an instruction for the shop, not for you, and can be safely ignored.

Best Before Dates are like the Pirate’s Code; they’re more what ye’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. The clue is in the name: the food will be “best” before that date, but that doesn’t stop you eating it later, although it might taste off if you do. I’ve been experimenting recently in an attempt to recreate shorba fuul sudani, and I had this problem with some lamb mince: tasted a bit weird, but I’m still alive. Then again, lamb mince always tastes weird without mint in it.

The exception to this rule is eggs. The exception is always eggs. About the only thing that I remember from doing my Health & Hygeine certificate, which is now about fifteen years out of date, is that eggs have to be stored very carefully on the bottom shelf of the fridge, because they’re liable to spoil every other item of food in the kitchen just by looking at it. For best results, store eggs in a separate fridge by themselves, or better still, seal them in concrete and dump them in the North Sea. With regard to best-before dates, eggs are so dangerous that they should be thrown out as soon as the date has passed. Salmonellosis is not a pleasant thing to get, so I suspect they have a point. Having said that, I haven’t seen an egg without the Lion Mark for years, so it’s not so much of a problem these days—although the British Egg Information Service asserts that they lion-mark about 85% of UK eggs, so there must still be non-vaccinated eggs out there. Exercise caution.

Use By Dates are the actual instructions which you better re’co’nize. Weight Watchers tantalizingly indicates that these dates are calculated “based on science”, but neglects to mention what science or who does it. Information I’ve picked up elsewhere seems to indicate that the use-by date for most things is set at ten days from production, so I doubt that there can be a lot of science involved. Nonetheless, these are pretty rigid, and it’s best to throw it out if the date has passed.

A lot of places pump an inert gas, like nitrogen, into the packet to exclude the air. This won’t save you. A lot of bacteria multiply anaerobically: botulinum is the key one, and botulism is another one of those things you don’t want to get. This is why you have to be careful when vacuum-sealing for sous-vide, and it applies when someone else has done the sealing, too.

The Weight Watchers article finishes off by saying that for more information, we should look at the Government information site, at www.eatwell.gov.uk. I’ve had a look, and I can’t find anything remotely about expiry dates in there. In typical government-advice fashion, they basically recommend that you throw everything away before you even buy it, just in case they end up liable for something.

We’ve got a treat for you this week: Hugh and a Normal Person—for sufficiently lax values of “normal” (hi Johnnie!)—go mano a mano with that titan of the sleb-chef world, Gordon Ramsay himself. The results should be interesting. Let us know what you think.

Ben Sanders | 2008-11-26 09:08:11 UTC

So you are saying that my egg strategy isnt a good one:
Buy half dozen eggs
Put eggs in fridge
Occasionally eat an egg in a stir fry or fried.
Run out of eggs about 2 months later.

So far it has mostly worked, and eggs have not caused me problems up to three months after buying.
I don generally like my eggs very well cooked (ie crispy brown bits on both sides of a fried egg), which probably helps, but it seems to be very rare to get a bad egg.

Alison Rowan | 2008-11-26 12:33:19 UTC

“I was reading Weight Watchers Magazine yesterday” – I see where you went wrong right there…

My egg policy is buy eggs, eat eggs, never bother to check the date, and it’s worked for me. I’ve had salmonella (and I wouldn’t recommend it) but I got it from a friend’s kids – people who don’t wash their hands being much more dangerous than almost anything that looks and smells like food.

Hugh | 2008-11-26 12:45:18 UTC

Alison brings up an interesting point. As Heston Blumenthal has said a few times – treat handling raw eggs in their shell as you would handling raw chicken. For obvious reasons – the egg’s been in contact with the inside of a chicken, and probably quite recently. Apparently washing your hands after handling eggs seriously reduces your salmonella risks – as I mentioned a few weeks ago, most salmonella contamination is in or on the shell.

Kris Jones | 2008-11-26 13:40:26 UTC

Is it actually necessary or desirable to keep eggs in a fridge? I know every fridge has an egg-holder, but they’re never refrigerated when sold in shops.

If one does refrigerate eggs, should they be removed and allowed to reach room temperature before using them in some recipes? Obviously it wouldn’t matter for a fried egg but if they’re used in batters, cakes or pastries, might a cold egg affect the final result?

In my rural science lessons back in the mid-70s (before eggs or anything else carried ‘use-by’ dates), we were taught how to assess the freshness of an egg. Break the egg onto a flat surface such as a plate (a saucer won’t do because of the indentation). If the egg is fresh then the white should have two distinct layers, with a raised area surrounding the yoke. It is easier to see if looked at from eye-level. Egg whites apparently lose their viscosity over time, so the more pronounced the layers, the fresher the egg. If there is no distinct layer, the egg is not fresh.

Hugh | 2008-11-26 13:58:19 UTC

All the evidence says yes, it’s very, very important indeed to keep your eggs in a fridge. I have no idea why supermarkets don’t, unless all eggs these days are pasturised.

My understanding is that temperature’s sometimes important. Heston Blumenthal recommends warming eggs in warm water before boiling them to reduce the chance of them cracking.

(For those interested in egg safety, you might be interested in my post from a few weeks ago – http://www.kamikazecookery.com/blogs/43 )

pajh | 2008-11-26 18:33:55 UTC

@Ben Sanders: in the catering industry, that strategy would get you shot at down, your houses razed, and the furrows ploughed with salt. And yet, as you’ve probably noticed, you’re still alive (I presume). The legislation is always overcautious.

I presume you buy lion-marked eggs? And I would recommend, at the least, breaking them into a cup first so you can check they’re fresh.

@Kris Jones: I was always told not to keep eggs in the fridge. I think this is more because a lot of recipes (especially batters, as you mention) require room-temperature eggs to work properly. It also helps with boiling eggs: a steep temperature gradient will cause the shells to crack, so it’s best to keep them out of the fridge for at least a while before you cook them.

That’s an interesting tip for checking freshness, to look at the white. I was taught to look at the yolk: the amount of dome you get shows you how fresh it is. Flat yolks = bad.

Ben Sanders | 2008-11-26 19:08:32 UTC

In the catering industry, 6 eggs wouldnt need to last months, and would probably disapear in a day.
And I had no idea what the lion mark is, but it does appear to be on the eggs I have in the fridge (which have a best before date of tomorrow, and i’ve only used 3 of them).
I do generally break/sniff before putting them into a pan or stirfry, but there are rarely any problems.

pajh | 2008-11-26 19:37:15 UTC

@Ben: yeah, maybe I should have mentioned that. The Lion Mark is the quality assurance stamp of the Egg Marketing Board, or whatever it is they’re calling themselves this week. The key point is that it indicates that the eggs so stamped are vaccinated against salmonella. There’s other stuff too, but I suspect most of it is boring government-type stuff, so I haven’t looked.

Hakuo0000 | 2008-11-26 20:12:59 UTC

o.o I usually keep my eggs out of the fridge, but that’s usually if I only have something uber huge that won’t fit into my fridge unless I take the eggs out. Like a large arse turkey that needs to defrost.

So, I have them for about three weeks in and out of the fridge and usually have to go out and by a new box of like four-dozen eggs every month or so.

Haven’t got sick. w00t.

Don’t think they have a lion mark, but then again I’m in teh US of A.

pajh | 2008-11-26 20:18:22 UTC

@Hakuo: The Lion Mark is a British thing, so you won’t have it. I don’t know what the US equivalent is, if there is one.

A quick google indicates that the FDA requires that unvaccinated eggs have a safety warning on the packet, but the safety warning is reasonable enough advice anyway, so I’d expect most packaging would say something like that on it. Thus, I don’t know how you’d tell if your eggs have been treated or not in the States.

Gill | 2008-11-27 00:22:42 UTC

I’m an old fart so I remember when the only ‘fridges you saw were in American movies and TV shows. (You could say I’m past my “best before” but not quite at my “use by” date ;o) There were no fridges – for eggs or anything else! We are, IMO, unnecessarily cautious with a lot of our food these days. Common sense & good hygiene practises can go a lot further than refrigeration.

But I digress, I want to pass on my gran’s tip for boiling eggs: add vinegar to the water before putting the eggs in and then, if the shell should crack, the white won’t leak out.

(Love the show guys, keep ’em coming!)

Steve | 2008-11-27 10:54:47 UTC

I generally buy eggs in boxes of 12, keep them out of the fridge, and only throw them out when they’re a few weeks out of date, if they last that long (my egg usage is sporadic). I’ve never caught anything unpleasant, but then I’m probably not a statistically significant sample set.

The only time I want new eggs is when I need good albumen, like meringue or poached eggs, although I usually make these things when I have new eggs, rather than buying new eggs specifically to make them.

I find that poking a little hole in the rounder end of the egg before boiling usually stops them cracking. Takes a few seconds with a steak knife.

Hugh | 2008-11-27 11:23:57 UTC

@Steve – ooh, that’s a bloody good idea (the poking-a-hole trick). I’d never thought of that.

@Gil – Thanks! The vinegar trick is also a good one – I should have thought of that because of the use of vinegar in poaching. Nice one.

katie | 2008-11-27 16:43:44 UTC

I wish American eggs had this Lion Mark you’re all talking about. It sounds neat. Kind of like the little stamp on M&Ms.

burge | 2008-11-27 20:10:46 UTC

You can get little special thingies for poking holes in eggs. My mum has had for for as long as I can remember. I bought mine in Lewis’s when I moved out.

Jeremiah Blatz | 2008-12-10 05:10:47 UTC

I have seen only a couple eggs go bad in my life. Like, really, truly bad. And I eat a lot of eggs. However, eggs do get less yummy fairly quickly. One way to tell is to drop the egg (shell and all) into some water. If it floats, it’s less yummy, and you should use it for fried rice. If it sinks, go ahead and poach it.

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