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I’ll never forget my first hunt to find “real” eggs back when we initially made our switch to real food. I’d read in Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, that “pastured” was the optimal egg label to look for yet when I visited three different grocery stores in our area – including health food stores – everyone basically looked at me like I had three heads. Those early days were fun. So, I went back to my research just to make sure I wasn’t confusing the word “pastured” with “pasteurized” (two similar sounding terms with very different meanings!), and I was momentarily at a loss.
Eventually I figured out that the “good” eggs are the local ones found at the farmers’ market (that come in all different colored shells by the way, including white). I learned that in most cases pastured chickens not only roam free, but roam on a green, grassy field – or should we call it – a pasture! Unlike cows, chickens do well solely on grains, BUT they are much healthier animals if they eat some greens as well. And as I’ve shared before, “The diet of the animals we eat strongly influences the nutritional quality, and healthfulness of the food we get from them, whether it is meat or milk or eggs.*”
Healthier chickens
(defined by diet and living conditions)
= more nutritious eggs!
So, for a couple years now we’ve been almost exclusively buying our eggs from our local grower’s only farmers’ market. And what I’ve noticed is that – no matter what type of grocery store eggs we compare them to – you can see the difference. The color of the yolks from truly pastured eggs are a vibrant orange versus the pale yellow you typically find. And when farmers’ market shopping there is no need to understand the different egg labels since you basically “shake the hand that feeds you” and can simply ask the farmer about the living conditions and diet of their chickens as well as the use (or lack) of antibiotics.
In an effort to clear some things up, here’s the low down on some common egg labels (based on information provided by the USDA and Humane Society). Read on to see what terms are actually regulated by the government and what they mean exactly – if anything!
Packaging Term |
Definition |
| Certified Organic | The birds are kept uncaged inside barns or warehouses, and are required to have outdoor access, but the amount, duration, and quality of outdoor access is not at all regulated (therefore it could be minimal and low quality). They are fed an organic, all-vegetarian diet free of antibiotics and pesticides, as required by the USDA’s National Organic Program. |
| Free Range, Free Roaming | This indicates that shelter was provided with unlimited access to food, fresh water, and the outdoors (which may be fenced and/or covered). This label is regulated by the USDA, but there are no specific requirements around the duration or quality of outdoor access. So let’s face it – this could simply mean there is an opening to a small, crowded dirt yard. |
| Cage Free | This label indicates that the chickens were able to freely roam a building, room, or enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water. Note: No outside time provided or specific requirements around how many chicken per square foot. |
| Vegetarian Fed | These birds are not fed animal byproducts, but this label does not indicate anything about the animals’ living conditions (i.e. caged vs. outside time) or what else they are fed. |
| Pasture Raised, Pastured | Due to the number of variables involved, the USDA has not developed a federal definition for pasture-raised products. Generally speaking though, “pastured” means the animals had access to a green field (not just any field) and in turn likely provide high-quality nutritious products. But since this term is not currently regulated there is no way to know for sure unless you directly ask the farmer (at the market). |
| Natural | “As required by USDA, meat, poultry, and egg products labeled as ‘natural’ must be minimally processed and contain no artificial ingredients.” However, the natural label does not include any standards regarding farm practices – i.e. how a chicken is housed and fed – and only applies to processing of meat and egg products. |
*Quote from the book Food Rules
Also, if you are interested, here’s some more egg reading for you from Take Part.
Update 3/5/13: A lot of readers have asked what the best choice is if there are no quality eggs from a farmer’s market in their area. We think organic eggs from the grocery store would be your next best bet, but also suggest reading the other comments below.
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I grew up in the countryside and we have always had our own chickens. And what I have learned from my grandmother is that the colour of the yolk is given by what the chicken eats. So if the chicken would eat lots of corn, it would be a vibrant yelow with orange tint. If it was more wheat, the yolk would be lighter in colour. The eggs as per your picture were valued and prefered by the ladies because you could get nicer colour of the batter and dough with them. So when they had to buy eggs for our special christmas sweet bread (much like a panetone ), they would allways ask what the chockens were fed (of course they all had acces to grass and were also fed the family’s leftovers). Also, the eggs were collected daily, but when you would used them, you rarely had more eggs with yolks in the same tint of yellow. That is probably because the chickens ate different food(depending what they found in the yard and on what leftovers the family had :). )and different quantity of cereal each day. But I am not an expert and never did my research on this subject :D , just childhood memories here.
It seems like all of our eggs are dark no matter what we feed them. We only see the pale ones when we buy them from the store. This is just based on my own personal experience.
A nice rich yellow will come from a diet high on grass and bugs too. Our chickens are fed a grain ration, which includes corn, and given access to pasture every day. The result, yolks that looks the color of apricots. There is no comparison! :)
Almost all the eggs I ate while in Spain had very orange yolks and tasted amazing.
Darker yolk is better… I have no idea who wrote this, but it is incorrect. The yolk reflects what the hen ate. The darker yolks are loaded with nutrients… This is pure misinformation.
We raise chickens and I can tell you that the yolk color is entirely dependent on what they eat. If they are grain fed like supermarket eggs, the yolks will be a light yellow. If the feed is soy free it will be a darker yellow. Our yolks are just like the dark one in your picture – it comes from chickens who are free ranging – ones that pick and choose what they are eating. The same chickens, if they need to be cooped and supplemented with grain, will lay much lighter yolks. If we supplement with grain with soy rather than soy free grain, the yolks are also much lighter.
People often forget that the chicken’s most natural source of food is worms… hence the beak… grains are not natural for them… anyone composting will usually have a very healthy amount and deep red in colour worms (the darker the red the healthier the worms)… let the chickens roam in that composing area and feed on the worms and that’s why chickens was a healthy source of protein for us…
Some big chains now carry pastured eggs. Vons in my area sells Vital Farms eggs (“from happy chickens!”). They’ll put you back $7 a dozen, though. As I don’t eat that many eggs, it’s fine for me.
Easiest way – buy them straight from the farm with the coating still on. Boom! Done.
Thanks! Great article. :)
Hello, I have fresh farm eggs for sale, I deliver to Minot, Garrison, and Bismarck, ND once a week. If you are interested in eggs give me a call. 701-721-7497.
What about the Certified Humane label?
Hi there. Here is info that might help: http://certifiedhumane.org/.