Let’s start with a confession:
I once made a quiche that almost ended in a dinner party disaster.
The guests weren’t hospitalized.
But they were… unsettled.
There was nausea.
There were suspicious stomach sounds.
And yes — I felt terrible.
The worst part?
The eggs looked perfect.
No cracks.
No odd smell.
No “expired” label.
So what went wrong?
I learned the hard way:
The expiration date isn’t the full story.
There are hidden codes on your egg carton — numbers and letters that tell you exactly how fresh your eggs are, and where they came from.
And if you don’t know how to read them?
You might be cooking with eggs that are older — or riskier — than you think.
Let’s decode the mystery.
📅 The Julian Date – Your Egg’s “Birthday”
That 3-digit number printed on the side of your carton?
That’s the Julian date — the day of the year the eggs were washed, graded, and packed.
It’s not random.
It’s not a batch number.
It’s a calendar.
001
January 1st
060
February 29th (or 28th)
182
July 1st
365
December 31st
So if your carton says 310, those eggs were packed on November 6th.
Why This Matters:
