One rotten egg out of five could be a terrible thing. How so? For instance, you’ve got five eggs. You successfully cracked four eggs into a bowl, then you cracked the last out of the five eggs into the same bowl but unfortunately that egg is rotten. That right there is five wasted eggs. This can be a very frustrating situation. How can you tell that an egg is rotten? Is that an impossible task? Well, it’s not. There are a couple of methods used to identify a bad egg which we’ll look at in this article.
Visual Inspection
You probably wondered how you can tell if the egg is good or bad when a shell is covering it. This visual inspection is done on the shell, which is the part you can see. First signs of spoilage include : slightly cracked eggshell, mold on any side of the eggshell, or slime residues on the shell. The slight crack in the egg is basically an entry for bacteria, while mold or slime is an indication of decay in the inner part of the egg.
This test usually is the first test many people opt for, especially when buying eggs from local markets. They’d pick up the eggs and thoroughly examine the eggshells with their eyes before purchasing them. However, some spoilage cannot be seen just by observing the eggshell. That’s where another test comes in.
Floating Test
An egg has an air sac in it and as the egg ages, this sac tends to grow wider. Since the older egg has more air in it, it will float. Basically bad or rotten eggs will float in water because of the amount of air in it. To perform you’ll need cold water and the egg you want to test. A bad egg will float, a good egg will sink to the bottom and lie flat on their side.
Crack The Egg Open
This is the sure way to confirm if an egg is bad or good. Crack the egg open but you want to do this in a separate bowl so as to not contaminate the good cracked eggs. A good egg has a clear and thick egg white which has a distinct boundary around the egg yolk. The yolk is typically yellowish or orange and well rounded. If the egg doesn’t exhibit any of the aforementioned characteristics but instead it has a runny or discolored egg white, flat yolk, and stinks (a very pungent smell) – then it’s bad.
Conclusion
Finding out if an egg is spoilt without cracking it is not an impossible task. You can try the visual inspection method where you check for slight cracks, molds or slime on the eggshell. However, some eggs that have gone back don’t always show symptoms on the outer shell. This brings us to the next method which is the floating test. A bad egg will float and a good egg will sink. If these two methods fail then you can crack the egg open and check for discolouration in the egg white or yolk. Lastly, if the egg has a pungent smell or runny egg white, then it’s definitely bad.
