Why do eggs float? Why do quail eggs float?

The eggs of all bird species are known to be edible. The most accessible to the buyer are chicken and quail, less often you can find ostrich on sale. It is better not to buy duck, goose and many other eggs - they are highly susceptible to salmonella contamination, so they are not so popular.

This article contains useful information for the consumer who is interested in choosing fresh eggs. The tips presented will help determine not only the quality of chicken eggs, but also other birds. Recommended storage conditions will preserve eggs for as long as possible.

Why are eggs different colors and which ones are better to choose?

Surely everyone has wondered: which is better and healthier, a white or a brown egg? Everything is very simple. The color of the shell largely depends on the breed of bird. For example, a white hen will lay a white egg, and a golden hen will lay a brown egg. And the amount of nutrients does not depend on color.

White chickens are considered more egg-laying, so they are used more often in poultry farms. Because of this, white eggs are associated with factory production and are considered less natural, although this is not the case. However, brown eggs are still different from white ones. Brown ones have a stronger shell than white ones, which is why they are stored a little better. If this is important, choose brown eggs.

Subject to all production rules, factory eggs must be nutritious and safe. It is clear that you cannot completely trust the manufacturer. You should always check the quality yourself.

You won’t find homemade village eggs in a regular supermarket, so focus on factory-made ones. Each egg must be labeled, clean and free of dirt. Now let’s take a closer look at how to choose the right one point by point.

Appearance: no defects or dirt

To correctly determine the quality of an egg, it is recommended to hold it in your hands. It should be clean, without roughness, and intact, not cracked. A solid matte surface will speak of freshness. If possible, hold it near the sun or a lamp. You should not see any darkening or blood clots.

Size matters: determined by markings

Much depends on age. The older the hen, the larger the egg. Therefore, a smaller egg is considered more useful, because... it was laid by a younger hen. If you have a choice, choose smaller eggs, up to a reasonable limit of course. In addition, small eggs last longer compared to large ones.

By the way, we must take into account the fact that brown eggs visually appear larger than white ones. Advice to study the labeling on which the category should be indicated. Assignment to one category or another depends only on weight. The higher the category, the smaller the egg should be.

For example, marking C-1 means that the egg is table and first category. Canteens (letter C) have a shelf life of 25 days. For dietary (D) – up to 7 days. Categories can be as follows: B (highest - from 75 g), O (selected - 65-74.9 g), 1 category. (55-64.9 g), 2 cat. (45-54.9 g), 3 cat. (35-44.9 g). The figures given apply only to chicken eggs; for other species the figures are different.

The best option is to buy eggs of the first category - medium size. They have a balanced composition and do not contain excess water, which may be present in larger eggs (highest and selected categories).

By smell

In addition to inspecting the egg outside and inside, to fully check the quality of the egg you need to smell it. A high-quality egg will never have an unpleasant odor, but a rotten egg will smell of hydrogen sulfide (the protein decomposes and a stench appears).

By sound

When shaken, a good egg will not make any sound. Shake the egg well. If you hear squelching, this will mean that the protein has become watery (a void has formed inside) and the product is no longer fresh.

Fresh egg sinks in water

At home, every buyer can do a simple freshness test. Place the egg in a container of water. Buoyancy will be a sign of staleness. A fresh egg will definitely sink, even if the water is salted.

The less fresh the egg, the better its buoyancy. It does not pop up immediately, but after some time. If it floats on the surface, then this is a clear sign of staleness.

To make sure it’s fresh for sure, you can use one more method. Take an egg, break it and carefully observe how it spreads. It is useful to study the white and yolk itself. More on this below.

By spreading after breaking

A broken fresh egg has a convex yolk, and if it spreads, then this is a clear sign of staleness.

Quality can be checked by the white and yolk. The white should be light, transparent and thick, without spots. The yolk is bright, with a rich color. The pallor of the yolk will indicate that the chicken had poor nutrition or was sick. But still, you should not rely only on these indicators, because... unscrupulous manufacturers can artificially create an attractive color of the white and yolk.

If you come across an egg with two yolks, don't worry. Such a product does not differ in the degree of usefulness or harmfulness.

By date

Always remember to check the manufacturing date and expiration date. It is better to look at the date not on the packaging, but on the egg itself. This grading date is closest to the date the bird laid the egg. Also pay attention to the storage conditions in the place where you buy this product.

Terms and conditions of storage

If all conditions are met, eggs are guaranteed to be stored for 25 days. You can also find diet eggs on sale that have a shelf life of no more than 7 days and are marked with the letter “D.”

The egg storage temperature should be between 1-5 degrees Celsius. At lower temperatures they will deteriorate irrevocably. Well, don’t forget, the higher the temperature, the shorter the shelf life.

The best storage place is the refrigerator. The door is not the best place in the refrigerator (in terms of temperature), although this is where manufacturers provide special cells for eggs. Theoretically, eggs can last up to 90 days in the refrigerator, but it is better not to experiment and risk your health.

Place the eggs with the pointed end down (the blunt end allows it to “breathe”) or, even better, turn it over from time to time. Well, don’t forget to treat the storage area in the refrigerator especially carefully when you wash it.

And one more useful tip that may be needed if preservation is needed for a long period. Grease each egg with vegetable oil and wrap in foil - this will help significantly increase shelf life.

Wash eggs only before use, because... after washing, the natural protective layer is removed, which will affect the shelf life. In principle, vegetable oil can successfully replace this layer, unless, of course, you don’t mind using it for this purpose.

You won’t be able to store the yolk for a long time - a maximum of 2 days. To achieve this period, you need to place it in a container with salted water.

Quail and ostrich eggs are preserved better than chicken eggs.

What packaging should I buy eggs in?

Eggs are a very fragile food product and therefore packaging plays an important function during their storage and transportation.

Paper containers are considered the best option. Plastic containers are inferior to paper ones, although they have two serious advantages: you can see the product through the plastic and bacteria do not develop in it as quickly as in paper. In addition, by buying eggs in paper packaging, you help nature, because... paper is an environmentally friendly material.

Every housewife knows that an egg lies at the bottom during cooking, so if suddenly raw eggs float in water, there must be well-founded doubts about the quality of the product.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult in a store, especially in supermarkets where goods are offered in closed containers. But at home while cooking, you can and should find out this question.

The following points should raise suspicions:

unpleasant smell of hydrogen sulfide,
protein opacity.

To ensure freshness, it is not necessary to break the product.

If eggs float in water

You need to put it in a pan of water, and if eggs floated in cold water or during cooking, which means they have spoiled.

Why is this happening?

Many people mistakenly believe that the egg is hermetically sealed.

In fact, there are pores in the shell through which air enters the chick. But along with it can also come microorganisms that cause putrefactive processes, as well as the release of gases. The gases are lighter than water, so they push the egg to the surface.

An old egg, even if it is edible, will float in any case, since air accumulates over time between the shell and the albumen.

If you threw an egg into water and it immediately sank to the bottom in a horizontal position, then the product is fresh.
If the blunt end floats up, it means that it is a week old, and irreversible processes have occurred inside, due to which the yolk and white have become more liquid. But you can still eat.
If the egg has taken a vertical position, it is about two to three weeks old. A completely floated product is more than a month old, and it is not recommended to eat it.

It is worth remembering that salt added during cooking will not reliably determine the freshness of the product, since salt makes the water denser, and a floating egg may not necessarily be spoiled.

But if it remains lying at the bottom, then there can be no doubt about its benefits and good taste.

VIDEO ON THE TOPIC

Not only chicken, but also if they are no longer suitable for food.

To avoid becoming a victim of a low-quality product, you can try to determine the degree of freshness before purchasing it.

Best before date. It is different for each product class. So, for dietary eggs it is up to 8 days, for table eggs, which are the most common, up to a month, for long-life eggs - up to six months.
Shell. It should be a little rough and without gloss. It is smooth only on a stale product.
Weight. Take the product in your hand. If it’s light, it means it’s already stale.
Shake the egg. If something seems to be loose inside and you hear slight sounds, then the product is not fresh.

In order to avoid damage to an already purchased product, you should follow simple rules.

Do not buy a product with cracks in the shell.
Store them only in the main compartment of the refrigerator, not in the door, as opening the door causes a temperature change.
To store eggs, choose a separate container so that the product does not come into contact with other contents of the refrigerator.
The optimal humidity for maintaining freshness is from 75 to 85%.
If the shelf life of a chicken egg is up to three weeks, then a quail egg is up to 40 days at a temperature from 0 to 20 degrees, and at a temperature from 0 to 15 degrees – up to 60 days.
If the egg was hard-boiled, it can be stored for up to 7 days.
The longer a product is stored at low temperatures, the less vitamins remain in it.

If you have any doubts about the quality of an egg, don't risk your health and throw it away, as food poisoning can be very serious, especially for young children.

In the section on the question If eggs float in the water, what does this mean? Can't they be boiled? given by the author Flush The best answer is that I can only complement all the other answers: break it, see for yourself, and then you will imagine how much the egg floats and how stale it is.

Answer from Let it sit in alcohol[newbie]
it is forbidden

Answer from Slope[guru]
The eggs are not too fresh. You can cook it, and then you will see how not fresh it is. It's possible that it's no big deal :))

Answer from Yotrannik[guru]
Not a single fresh egg will ever float.
If the egg floats, it means only one thing. It's old!
The reason lies in the fact that over time the air cavity in the egg increases.
Some boil eggs in salt water so that the shell does not burst and is cleaned well. It is a myth.
But already a 7-10 day old egg, quite suitable for food, subject to storage conditions, in salt water can float slightly in the water column. This has to do with density.

Answer from Џ)) [newbie]
They CANNOT be cooked! They've gone bad. If the eggs sink in the water, then they are fresh, if they float slightly, then you need to hurry up and eat them, and if they float, then they are stale. Tip: it is better to store eggs in the refrigerator with the blunt end up and the pointed end down, this way they will retain their freshness longer, tested!

Answer from I live as I want to[guru]
I don't think it's possible

Answer from Liona-STRO[guru]
Rotten.

Answer from Olga Sipacheva (Demidova)[guru]
Old, dried out and became lighter than water.

Answer from Nosova Svetlana[guru]
Just a hundred years ago, the freshness and quality of an egg was determined using water. The questionable egg was simply placed in a container of water. If the egg sank to the bottom, everything is fine. This showed that the egg was quite fresh and suitable for consumption even in its raw form.
If the egg stopped falling and floated somewhere in the middle of the container, it was believed that the egg had already “thought” and should be immediately put into use (and not in its raw form), since after a short amount of time it would become unusable.
If an egg, lowered into water, floated up and floated in it, like... a leaf in an ice hole, the conclusion was unequivocal: such an egg should not be eaten. It's better to throw it in the trash.
Under the shell of the egg, the processes of rotting and decomposition of the protein begin, as a result of which gases are released (and then the putrid smell of hydrogen sulfide appears), which, as we know from school, are lighter than water. And the greater the rotting process, the more gases, which, combining with the air already present in the egg, raise the spoiled egg to the very surface of the water. So, if an egg floats at the very neck of a container of water, this means that the egg is not only old, but also rotten.

Answer from Yoya[guru]
They are old, just throw them away.

Answer from Nick[master]
They are definitely spoiled. This is how you usually check the freshness of eggs.

Answer from Anastasia Selyukova[newbie]
they say that if an egg floats up with a blunt end, then it is a week old and can be eaten, but if it is sharp, then it is better to throw it away

Answer from Dunno[active]
Floating eggs spoil my appetite so I change them =)

On our website you can find many why-cheques on the theme of eggs. For example, or. Today we will talk about why rotten eggs tend to float in water.

In general, our distant ancestors began to check this product for freshness in this way. Even then they knew that spoiled eggs do not sink in water. Let's explain this phenomenon from a scientific point of view. So, under the shell there is an infrashell membrane, consisting of two layers. It has the property of allowing air and moisture to pass through itself. As you know, eggs have two edges: one sharp, the other blunt. In the latter, this same shell is stratified, resulting in a small air chamber (called puga). The older the eggs, the larger the volume of the egg.

It is interesting that although the shell looks completely protected from the influence of the outside world, this is not at all the case. For example, it allows microbes to pass through it quite easily. Moreover, this happens almost immediately after the chicken lays the egg (until this moment, being in the bird’s body, it is a sterile-clean product). When putrefactive processes begin under the shell due to microbes, a gas is released that forms an extremely unpleasant odor of hydrogen sulfide, which results from the decomposition of protein. Since air and the resulting gases are much lighter than water, a stale egg simply floats as soon as you put it in a pan.

If eggs float in water, what does this mean? Can't they be boiled?

They are definitely spoiled. This is how you usually check the freshness of eggs.
The point is whether you can eat them cooked if you cook them for a long time!???
they say that if an egg floats up with a blunt end, then it is a week old and can be eaten, but if it is sharp, then it is better to throw it away
They CANNOT be cooked! They've gone bad. If the eggs sink in the water, then they are fresh, if they float slightly, then you need to hurry up and eat them, and if they float, then they are stale. Tip: it is better to store eggs in the refrigerator with the blunt end up and the pointed end down, this way they will retain their freshness longer, tested!
I don't think it's possible
They are old, just throw them away.
Of course you can't
Not a single fresh egg will ever float.
If the egg floats, it means only one thing. It's old!
The reason lies in the fact that over time the air cavity in the egg increases.
Some boil eggs in salt water so that the shell does not burst and is cleaned well. It is a myth.
But already a 7-10 day old egg, quite suitable for food, subject to storage conditions, in salt water can float slightly in the water column. This has to do with density.
Floating eggs spoil my appetite so I change them =)
Eat them, don't care 😉
It’s funny, it’s as if several eggs floated up with the blunt end, it’s not scary to cook))))
If the eggs float to the surface, it means your husband cheated on you today...
The eggs are not too fresh. You can cook it, and then you will see how not fresh it is. It's possible that it's no big deal :))
Rotten.
I can only complement all the other answers: break it, you will see for yourself, and then you will imagine how much the egg floats and how stale it is.
Old, dried out and became lighter than water.
Just a hundred years ago, the freshness and quality of an egg was determined using water. The questionable egg was simply placed in a container of water. If the egg sank to the bottom everything is fine. This showed that the egg was quite fresh and suitable for consumption even in its raw form.
If the egg stopped falling and floated somewhere in the middle of the container, it was believed that the egg had already been conceived, and it should be immediately put into use (and not in its raw form), since after a short amount of time it would become unusable.

If an egg, lowered into water, floated up and floated in it, how... leaf in the hole, the conclusion was clear: such an egg should not be eaten. It's better to throw it in the trash.

Under the shell of the egg, the processes of rotting and decomposition of the protein begin, as a result of which gases are released (and then the putrid smell of hydrogen sulfide appears), which, as we know from school, are lighter than water. And the greater the rotting process, the more gases, which, combining with the air already present in the egg, raise the spoiled egg to the very surface of the water. So, if an egg floats at the very neck of a container of water, this means that the egg is not only old, but also rotten.
it is forbidden