What Does the Code on My Egg Carton Mean?

Egg cartons have an alphabet soup of letters and numbers on them. They do mean something, and they can help you choose fresher eggs.

What Does the Code on My Egg Carton Mean?

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There are three codes on your egg carton – the pack date, the expiration date, and the plant code.

Pack Date

All egg cartons have a pack date. This is 3-digit date, in the Julian calendar format. January 1 is 001, and December 31 is 365 (in a leap year, December 31 is 366). This tells you the date that the eggs were packed in the egg carton. The pack date in the egg carton above is 088, which was March 27, 2015.

You can safely store eggs in your refrigerator and use them for up to 4-5 weeks past the pack date.

Expiration Date

All eggs packed in a USDA inspected facility (look for the USDA shield on the package) must also have an expiration, sell by, use by, or best by date. On this egg carton, the pack date is 336, or December 2. The sell by date is December 31.

An expiration or sell by date tells the grocery store when to pull the eggs from the shelf. This date must be 30 days or less from the pack date. Eggs are still safe to eat for 1-2 weeks past this date (4-5 weeks past the pack date). A best by date tells you when your eggs will have the best quality. If a best by date is on the egg carton, it must be 45 days or less from the pack date. Check out this post for more information about dates on food labels.

Plant Code

All eggs packaged in a USDA inspected plant must also have a plant code on the carton. The plant code is a 4-digit number, usually with a “P” in front of it. The plant code tells you which plant the eggs were packaged in. You can look up the plant location with this tool from the USDA. Put in the 4-digit plant code (without the “P”), and it will tell you where your eggs were packaged.

I have a few old egg cartons kicking around here. The USDA plant codes are 1925, 1831, 1974, and 1187. Three of those are in Croton, Ohio (350 miles away) and one is in Bryant, Indiana (250 miles away). How cool that the eggs in my grocery store are from so close to me?

The next time you’re in the grocery store, you’ll be able to pick the freshest eggs. Unless you want to hard boil them. Then you should look for eggs that are a little older. (Find out why here.)

Cooking With Eggs

Now that you know how to tell where your eggs are from and how old they are, try these recipes!

• How to Hard Boil Eggs
• Easy Egg Salad
• Bacon & Egg Waffle Sandwich
• Toffee Chip Freezer Cookies