Baking – Bad eggs in baking

bakingeggs

I had some eggs that were a couple weeks overdue and I used them in an off-the-shelf cake batter. I've had eggs that past due date before without issues but these were two weeks overdue and I thought they smelled a bit off but I couldn't be sure.

Would anyone know if bad/old eggs in baking would make you sick? The eggs are cooked in the batter so I was hoping that they would still be ok.

Best Answer

The standard test for eggs is to slowly lower your egg(s) in cold water. If it floats, throw it out. The smell test will only identify severely rotten eggs, while the float test will hint at how well the egg will perform as a binder in baking recipes.

If it helps, the FDA standard best-by dates are normally 1 week prior to the use-by (which is the date the food is considered no longer fit to use). The standard use-by date for eggs in the US is 28 days after being laid. After 28 days the chances of bacterial growth within the egg are significant enough that they're not worth using.