Are eggs safe to eat one day after the buy by date?

Answer 1

One day after and you should be ok, but I wouldn't suggest you do it, as you are still taking a slight risk-eggs are the most dangerous dairy food if eaten after the date stated on the front of their label, as over time you then have the risk of catching salmonella poisoning. The UK government Food Standards Agency (FSA) is the most cautious, due to the potential risk of salmonella in some eggs (salmonella in eggs can occur naturally), they state that although with other dairy products you can use the standard taste tests to see if its still edible, but you should never eat any eggs after this "best before" date at all. I would advise you to do the same!

Read here:

http://www.eatwell.gov.UK/foodlabels/labellingterms/bestbefore/

The date on most dairy products is not when the food goes mysteriously completely bad and is unsafe to eat, it is the date that stores can no longer sell them, as according to them its no longer considered "fresh" or at the height of its taste. With all dairy products (milk/eggs/cheese etc) we are advised to treat these dates like a "use by" (usually shown on non-dairy products), and should be eaten before whats stated on the front. I would be cautious with all dairy products-you may not notice any taste difference eating dairy the day after the "use by" date, but the level of bacteria growth in most dairy foods (especially in milk or similar products after opening) does increase rapidly over a couple of days, so you can end up feeling sick if you drunk too much milk that had gone off!

With eggs, its the possibility of an egg having a high level of salmonella that's the risk over time, not how fresh it still is. Confusingly, with most other egg safety websites, eggs kept in the fridge they should be ok up to roughly 3 weeks after purchase, but we can never be completely clear as to when any purchased eggs were received by the supermarket to sell - so that makes it difficult for the customer to decide how long they can be kept for. Some US websites even state you can keep an egg from its date of "birth" 5 weeks afterwards. Interestingly, some websites state that the safest eggs may well be those that are NOT organic, as the organic ones may not have been injected with much needed anti-bacterial chemicals in order to last longer (and possibly even reduce the amount of salmonella found in 1 or more out of 100 eggs).

The bottom line is to always cook your eggs thoroughly and store them in a cold part of your fridge (ie not the side of the door), and never attempt to cook/eat an egg with a cracked shell, no matter how small. I usually bin eggs straight after the best before date just to be extra cautious, but the general rule is still if you are not sure, simply bin it. If I had a family to cook for, I would be extra wary-you don't want anyone to catch anything, do you? Crack the shell, if the egg or its yolk acts, looks or smells bad, don't even attempt to eat it! To avoid the higher risks of poisoning from any salmonella that may be present, simply try not to eat any eggs after this date at all.

Here are some general facts:-

http://eggs.ab.ca/about-eggs/faq

http://www.eggsafety.org/consumers/consumer-faqs#Handling1

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/eggstorage.HTML

http://www.netdoctor.co.UK/health_advice/facts/salmonella.htm