Saturday, January 22, 2011

How long will fresh chicken eggs keep?

I'm starting to think that maybe I should have named my blog something different....like "The life of a chicken farmer" or "My 10 Chicks and my kids too"

One of the most popular questions I have had so far is - "how long does a farm fresh egg keep for?" So I did a search and found the results very interesting!!



This is taken from Answers.com
  • Farmers have 30 days from the day an egg is laid to get it to stores. Then, the stores have another 30 days to sell the eggs. The USDA recommends a maximum of 5 weeks in your refrigerator before you discard your eggs. What does this all boil down to? On April 1, you could be eating an egg that was laid on Christmas.
  • Eggs last about 4-5 weeks in your refrigerator. If you don't know how long the egg has been in the refrigerator, fill a cup with water (enough to cover the egg), and put the egg in the cup. If the egg sinks to the bottom, it is still good to eat; if the egg floats, however, it is bad and should be discarded.
  • Many eggs in the U.S. get to market within a few days of laying. If there is a USDA shield on the carton, it must have at least a Julian pack date. A use-by is not required, but if used, it must not be more than 45 days from packing. If the eggs are not distributed interstate, state laws will apply and are variable.

5 comments:

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LeeAnn said...

Erica,
I stumbled across your blog and this post made me smile. We don't have laying hens currently, but have had them off and on for several years. When my now almost 14 year old daughter was in 3rd grade she did a science fair experiment to determine the answer to your title question. She kept some of our laid eggs in the fridge and some on the counter, and she put some store bought in the fridge and on the counter. The funny thing was that the home-laid eggs left out of the fridge stayed good longer than the store bought eggs kept in the fridge! It was a cool experiment!

kbos2hm said...

that now is realy realy usefull information 1/10 for research mine are good to eat they have been in the fridge for about 5 weeks ill make egg fried rice with them later now i know they are ok

kbos2hm said...

sory 10/10

jamiebartley said...

thank you for following I am now following back