Is There a Secret Code On Egg Cartons That Tells You How Fresh They Are?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could look on the carton and find out exactly how old your eggs are? Since there is an egg shortage right now, this would be even more useful. There is a sell-by date on egg cartons, of course, and some other numbers. According to some folks, one of those numbers is a secret code that tells you exactly when the eggs were packed! Is this true?

Yes, a code on egg cartons tells you when the eggs were packed into the carton. The numbers are based on the “Julian” calender. This is a 3-digit number between 1 and 365. There are 365 days in the year so I’ll bet you’ve cracked the egg code. The number represents the day of the year the eggs were packed. The number printed on the carton of eggs I have is 309. That means the eggs were packed on November 4, 2024. They are several weeks old, at least.

Unfortunately, the three-digit code tells you when they were packed, not when they were laid. Egg producers do not have to pack eggs immediately after they are laid. They have up to 30 days to place them in a carton. Then, they can be sold up to 30 days after the date they were packed.

So, the eggs in my fridge could have been laid as early as October 5, 2024. Then, they could have been sold as late as December 4, 2024. Or, any time in between. The best-by date printed on the carton is December 18. I presume they did not wait around 30 days before packing. But I have no way of knowing. The eggs could be, at this point, around 7 weeks old. This is not what most of us think of as “fresh eggs” but it is the reality of how eggs are produced and sold.

When the three-digit code becomes useful, most eggs will be past their best-buy date, rendering such a code redundant. In general, eggs can be up to two months old by the time you buy them at the supermarket.

The eggs I just referenced were quite fresh when I bought them, as judged by more reliable factors than secret codes. Despite the click-happy news from many eggcellent sources, egg farmers do not place these codes on cartons to be useful to you, the customer, only to themselves. Learn about better ways to judge the freshness of eggs.