In the Grocery Store today there are many different kinds of eggs. Farm Fresh Eggs, Free Range Eggs, Vegetarian Fed Eggs, Organic Eggs, Cage Free Eggs, Omega 3 Eggs, Brown Eggs, White Eggs.
Do you know which one is best?
When did eggs get so complicated?
Wanna know the truth about eggs & which are impostors?
If you’ve always wondered which eggs are the real ones – here’s a list of all the typical “eggs” sold in supermarkets & the truth behind those oval beauties:
Regular Eggs
AKA: Regular (Grade A or B)
INFO: These eggs come from commercially farmed chickens. They are usually raised in small cages stacked on top of each other (Battery Cages). They have no exposure to sunlight or exercise. Poor, poor chickens.
Cage Free Eggs
AKA: Cage Free
INFO: The chickens are not raised in small cages, but they are raised in tight conditions. They are kept in a barn-like facility with little sunlight. Just because the carton says “cage free” does not mean they are wandering around a grassy pasture. It simply means they are not in tiny battery cages. More poor chickens.
Free Range
AKA: Free Range
INFO: This means that the chickens will be able to go outdoors for some portion of each day. There is no guarantee of pasture or grass or even a certain amount of time outdoors. It does not even allot a certain amount of area per chicken. It just means they will get to go outdoors for part of their day.
Organic Eggs
AKA: Certified Organic
INFO: Organic means that the chickens are eating organic feed and not given antibiotics. These chickens probably are going to have some exposure to sunlight.
Organic Vegetarian Eggs
AKA: Organic Vegetarian Fed
INFO: This is an egg from chickens fed no meat. They are fed an organic vegetarian diet. This sounds positive, however, chickens are supposed to eat bugs, insects, and worms to be their healthiest.
Omega-3 Enriched
AKA: Omega-3 Enriched
INFO: These eggs are from chickens fed a diet enriched with omega-3.
Brown / White Eggs
AKA: Brown or White
INFO: There is no nutritional difference in an egg because of it’s color. The breed of chicken determines the color egg it will lay. Grocery stores usually sell white and brown. Eggs also come in blue and green. The color makes no difference nutritionally speaking.
Pasture Raised Eggs (These are best)
AKA: Pasture Raised
INFO: If an egg is pasture raised this means that the chickens are free to roam on open grassy pasture. They eat an organic diet including bugs, insects, worms, grass, vegetation or whatever else it finds. They spend their days in the sunlight exercising and are not given antibiotics. The yolks will be darker and healthier. The eggs taste better and nutritionally are higher in Vitamin A, E beta carotene, and Omega-3’s. Ureka! Yay! This is what I want to eat.
Our eggs fall into the “pasture raised” category.
We bought 6 chickens last week. The 6 new chickens lay white eggs. We don’t have any chickens that lay white eggs in our flock (until now). So, this makes it really easy to figure out which eggs came out of the new chickens.
The previous owner kept the chickens in a fenced in area. When chickens are fenced in most of their diet comes from the feed being provided.
I cracked open some eggs this week and noticed a difference between our “pasture-raised” chicken eggs & the “fenced-in” chicken eggs.
Here they are side by side. The darker one is from one of our “pasture raised” chickens. The lighter yolk egg is from a “fenced in” chicken.
Darker color is an indicator of nutritional content. The more color (the darker the yolk) the better that egg is going to be for you to eat.
Here’s a bowl of yolks. I was making ice-cream and needed 8 yolks. Can you guess which one is from the fenced in chicken?
Cool eh?
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-Candi
