Households are binning hundreds of millions of perfectly edible eggs every year because of confusion over when they go off, a new study has claimed – and it’s adding to the UK’s ever growing food waste mountain,.
Too Good To Go, the food waste app, estimates 720 million are chucked annually because two thirds of us rely on best before dates to decide whether they are good enough to eat, despite the fact they can be perfectly edible long after the date on the packaging has passed.
There is, however, an easy trick you can use to check if they are good to eat – and you don’t need any fancy tech, just a bowl and some water.
A simple test in a bowl of cold water can show whether eggs are still good to eat, but less than a quarter of Brits know how to do this. If the eggs sink to the bottom and lie flat on their sides, they’re very fresh. If they’re less fresh but still good to eat, they’ll stand on one end at the bottom of the bowl. If they float to the surface, they’re no longer fresh enough to eat, the app says.
Should you keep eggs in the fridge? Yes, but in the main bit of the fridge not in the door (even if it does have one of those egg holders), because the constant opening and closing and temperature changes make them go off more quickly. Good quality eggs that have not been refrigerated between hatch and sale can be kept at room temperature – but read this guide to understand the difference.
“Food waste is a huge problem – a third of all food produced globally is wasted. Small changes from each of us can make a big difference,” Jamie Crummie, co-founder at Too Good To Go said.
Easy ways to reduce food waste at home
In the UK we have an abundant food supply, but households waste several million tonnes from our cupboards and fridges, according to resource consultancy WRAP.
One of the easiest ways to reduce your rubbish is to stop throwing away leftovers. The charity Love Food Hate Waste online has a number of recipes which can be adapted to suit what’s in your fridge. Give it a read for inspo.
If you’re feeling more adventurous you can also try your hand at regrowing your food scraps. Spring onions, potatoes, basil, lettuce and celery are all relatively easy to regrow at home – check out out how-to guide here.