You know when you go to the store or supermarket and buy eggs? The carton has a whole bunch of numbers on the side, doesn’t it? One of them is clear – it’s a ‘best buy’ date. We all understand that. But what about that mysterious number next it? Well, it’s called a ‘Julian Date’. And it also indicates a time of year. A specific day, in fact. It’s a number between 1 – 365 and indicates what day of the year the eggs were boxed.

So if it says ‘001’, the eggs were laid on January 1st, etc. The alarming thing? Your eggs probably weren’t laid very recently at all…

A campaign by ‘Fresh Eggs Daily‘ is looking to raise awareness. Here’s what the founder says about it all: “EVERY date I saw on them was between 352-355, meaning that those eggs were put in that carton on the 352nd-355th day of last year. Add to that the 19 days so far this year, and these eggs have all been in the carton for about a month (and could have been laid up to 30 days prior to that) and check out the Sell by dates — these eggs can still sit on the shelf for a few more weeks.”

Find out more about this strange ‘Julian Date’ business…