Boiling an egg is a fine art - especially if you're picky about how you like your eggs. I've had to throw many eggs in the garbage after they've exploded in the saucepan or come out undercooked - but thankfully there seem to be many people who are also at a loss when it comes to preparing this simple food.

In Britain, eggs will soon have the Lion Quality logo printed on them in invisible ink - which will turn black when the egg is properly boiled.

The British Egg Information Service, a service set up by the British Egg Industry to provide information about eggs, apparently gets flooded with questions about how to boil an egg. So they've taken the matter into their own hands and in the next few months, eggs will have a logo on them printed in invisible, heat-sensitive ink that will appear in black when the egg is ready to be consumed.

People will be able to buy a carton of eggs specific to their preference for either hard, medium or soft boiled eggs. The ink changes colour when the water reaches a specific temperature, and after it's been boiling for three minutes for soft boiled egg, after four minutes for a medium boiled one and after seven minutes for a properly hard boiled egg.

I am sceptical about whether this will actually work. From my own experience, it seems like a lot depends on how gradually the water is heated up - and I don't see how the ink would take that into account. I guess additional instructions could be placed on the carton, but also - what about the people who like to vary their style of eggs? Will they have to settle for hard boiled eggs every day of the week, or start eating eggs for every meal so that they can justify buying three separate cartons of eggs?