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remain wholesome for well beyond this 45-day period—60 to 70 days is reasonable While it’s possible that the eggs you’re buying were laid within a few days of their pack date, manufacturers have up to 30 days to clean and pack eggs, which means that, in theory, if you buy a carton of eggs on its expiration date, it may already be 75 days old! Clearly, checking the expiration date is not the most reliable way to guarantee fresh eggs You’re much better off checking the pack date Q: What if I buy eggs without a pack date or I’ve transferred the eggs to the egg compartment in my refrigerator door and no longer know the date? First off, everyone tells you that if you want to maximize shelf life, you should get those eggs out of the fridge door and into the coldest part of your fridge True But what they fail to tell you is that even on a shelf in the door, eggs will last for several weeks beyond their pack date So unless you eat or cook with eggs only on very rare occasions, go ahead and keep them in the door You’ll use ’em up long before they go bad That said, there’s a quick and easy test to gauge the freshness of an egg: just drop it into a bowl of water Eggshells are porous: they can lose about microliters of water a day to evaporation while simultaneously taking air into the space between the shell and the inner membrane near the fat end In very fresh eggs, the air space is tiny and the egg will sink to the bottom of the bowl and lie on its side As eggs get older, the air space will grow, so old eggs will sink and then stand on their points as the air in the larger end tries to rise If you’ve got an egg that floats, it’s probably past its prime and should be discarded Old eggs stand up when submerged in water Q: My local farmers’ market sells unrefrigerated eggs, and I’ve seen some supermarkets in Europe where the eggs just sit out on shelves Are they crazy, or is it me? Most likely it’s you When eggs are first laid, they are covered in a thin wax-like coating called the cuticle This cuticle is the egg’s first barrier against bacterial infection ... and I’ve seen some supermarkets in Europe where the eggs just sit out on shelves Are they crazy, or is it me? Most likely it’s you When eggs are first laid, they are covered in a thin wax-like coating called the cuticle This cuticle is the