You Paid A Mint For A Traditional Easter But How Long Before Boiled Eggs Go Bad?

What's the point of no return for boiled eggs? Plus a bonus video on how to peel a hard-boiled egg without damaging the whites.

Most Americans wouldn’t willingly throw a 50-cent piece in the landfill because it was tarnished.

That’s about the cost of an egg at today’s record-high prices, according to the latest government inflation report. The price of eggs at the grocery store leapt 5.9 percent from February to March, to an average price of $6.23 a dozen. The increase was unexpected because wholesale prices have fallen as bird flu outbreaks subsided.

Figuratively speaking, they’re worth their weight in gold. Unlike gold, they’ll go bad in a Fort Knox minute if improperly stored.

But is it safe to eat dyed Easter eggs? And if it is, what’s the point of no return?

If you’re dying Easter eggs and storing them in the refrigerator like any other hard-boiled egg, you can eat them for up to a week as long as you’ve used food-safe dyes or food coloring, according to the American Egg Board.

But if you’re decorating and hiding them, enjoy their beauty but not their taste.

About 1 in every 20,000 eggs is contaminated with salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there’s no way to know by looking at the eggs which ones might have the bacteria lurking in them.

If they do contain salmonella bacteria, the contaminant can multiply quickly at room temperature, according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. That’s why it’s important to refrigerate eggs as soon as possible after gathering or bringing them home from the store.

Some important considerations:

• Store eggs in a carton in the coldest part of the refrigerator (40 degrees Fahrenheit or below).

• Do not store eggs on refrigerator door shelves; they’re warmer than the interior areas of the fridge.

• Refrigerated eggs should never be left out for more than two hours.

• Refrigerate hard-boiled eggs within two hours of cooking.

• Hard-cooked eggs spoil faster than fresh eggs; that’s because as eggs are cooked, the protective coating on the eggshell is washed away.

In some cultures and Easter traditions, the egg whites and yolks are blown out of the shell. If you’re blowing out an egg, follow these tips from the USDA and Jessi Wohlwend on her DIY blog, Practically Functional:

• Make sure you’re using uncracked, refrigerated eggs.

• Wash the egg in hot water and rinse in a solution of 1 teaspoon of liquid chlorine bleach to ½ cup of water.

• Use a needle or toothpick to poke a hole in each end and cover with a small piece of tape; the hole at the larger end of the egg should be a bit bigger than the one at the top.

• Put a finger over both openings and shake the egg to scramble the insides; you should be able to hear the contents sloshing around.

• Fit your lips around the small opening at the top, taking care to get a tight seal so all your air goes into the egg; as Wohlwend explains on her blog, blowing out the insides of an egg is “like blowing up a really, really tough balloon.”

• Wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling eggs.

Eat Them If You Must

The USDA frowns on eating eggs used for hunting but says if the intent is to have the kids eat them, the eggs should be hidden in places that are free of dirt, moisture, pets and other sources of bacteria. Keep in mind, too, that eggs in the dirt can pick up bacteria from the soil, especially if the shells are cracked.

The total “hide and hunt time” should never exceed two hours, the USDA says. Found eggs should be washed, put back in the refrigerator and eaten within seven days of the date they were boiled.

The agency would rather folks boil two sets of eggs — one for eating and the other for decorating and hiding — or use plastic eggs in the hunt.

Salmonella illnesses are unpleasant, but usually not life-threatening — except in some cases of people with weakened immune systems, adults 65 and older and children 5 and younger, the CDC says. In most cases, the illness will last four to seven days of eating the contaminated food, with symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal cramps.

Here are some facts about eggs in general from the American Egg Board:

• If stored in a refrigerator at 35 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, raw whole eggs in their shells will usually last four to five weeks beyond the pack date, or about three weeks after purchase.

• You can keep slightly beaten raw whole eggs for up to two days, raw egg whites up to four days and raw egg yolks up to two days.

• You can freeze eggs (out of their shells) if you have more than you can use in a week. Freeze only clean, fresh eggs in tightly sealed freezer containers. Be sure to label the package with the number of eggs, whites or yolks and the date. Defrost frozen eggs overnight in the refrigerator.

• Egg yolks will thicken, or gel, when frozen. To stop the gel formation, beat in either ⅛ teaspoon of salt or 1½ teaspoons of sugar or corn syrup per ¼ cup yolks (4 large eggs) before freezing. Indicate "with salt" on the container for main dishes, or "with sugar" for desserts.

• When stored in a freezer 0 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, eggs will stay good for about a year. Freezing raw whole eggs in their shells is not recommended, nor is it recommended that hard-boiled eggs — either in a shell or peeled — be frozen.

What About Deviled Eggs?

If kept refrigerated in an airtight container, deviled eggs can last for three or four days. It’s best to leave them out at room temperature for only a couple of hours during mealtime.

If deviled eggs are exposed to temperatures of 90 degrees are higher, discard the leftovers after one hour, according to Southern Living.

Potato salad with eggs and egg salad will last a similar amount of time if stored with the same care.

Want to know how to peel a hard-boiled egg without damaging the whites? Check this out from the American Egg Board.