sell by dates

[Tarrel]

That's one thing that makes hens a good prepping measure. They tend to go off-lay in the depths of winter, but it doesn't matter, because the eggs they lay in the late autumn will last for weeks.

Food regulations are a mess. When we sell eggs at the door we are required by the Food Standards Agency to display a "best before" date of four weeks from lay, and to advise the buyer to "keep chilled". Actually, the method in which eggs go stale is loss of moisture from inside the egg through the semi-permeable membrane that is the shell. This loss of moisture will be increased if the eggs are kept in a low-humidity environment, which is eggsactly the condition in a fridge! Better to keep them at a cool room-temperature in moderately humid air.

I suppose the rules are there in case someone decides to keep them right next to a radiator or something.