How to buy eggs 🐣

I get vertigo trying to buy eggs at a supermarket. Your egg choice is important because egg yolks are primarily fat, crappy eggs will be high in polyunsaturated fat (PUFA), and fats are forever

Our dream egg is…

Pasture raised, corn & soy free, unwashed, from a local, certified Organic farm raising heirloom chickens

I live in NYC and order from Dutch Meadows farms, which checks nearly all of these boxes, and the yolks don’t break easily.

(I care a tremendous amount about yolk integrity, I hate yolks that break easily. This is apparently controlled by freshness, chicken health, and shell permeability)

What’s good enough?

The key terms to look for are Pasture Raised and ideally Corn & Soy free. This ensures the chickens had access to a foraged diet, sunlight, and are not pumped up on PUFA.

Organic & Heirloom would be nice to have as well, but many small farms don’t go for the organic certification as it is expensive.

The egg aisle glossary:

(Good stuff at the end)

Cage Free:

• Space: Less than 1 square foot per chicken.

• Diet: Primarily corn- or soy-based.

• These chickens live in warehouses outside of cages, and never go outdoors. USDA enforced term.

Free Range:

• Space: Partial access to 2 square feet outdoor space

• Diet: Mainly corn- or soy-based.

• There's no set duration for which they must be outside per day and they may not go out at all. There’s basically just a door on the house that the farmer may or may not open. USDA enforced term.

Pasture Raised:

• Space: 108 square feet outdoors.

• Diet: A mix of corn- or soy-based feed, grass, worms, and bugs.

• These chickens have the best of both worlds—ample outdoor time and a cozy barn for shelter. They benefit from a diverse diet which includes natural foraging. Not a USDA term, “Certified Humane” and/or “Animal Welfare Approved, mean this was actually checked upon.

Organic:

• Space & Lifestyle: Both free-range and cage-free with guaranteed outdoor access.

• Diet: Free from pesticides, fertilizers, animal by-products, and chemical additives, but still may contain corn or soy. Certified by the USDA.

Soy & Corn Free:

• Generally fed a mix of grains, and hopefully pasture raised and allowed to pick through a natural diet

• Yolks should be lower in PUFA.

Heirloom:

• Derived from traditional, non-hybrid chicken breeds. Often have colored shells, etc. Generally desireable.

Why unwashed eggs?

Washing eggs removes a coating that prevents oxygen and moisture from permeating the shell. In the US eggs are required to be washed, which is why they must be refrigerated. In Europe this coating is left intact and thus they can be left at room temp for longer.

On Yolk Color:
A rich orange yolk is generally a good sign of a diverse diet rich in carotenoids, but there are ways to hack this by essentially loading the chickens up with heavily pigmented feed.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much, there are great eggs with amazing nutrient profiles without orange yolks.

Duck eggs:

Ducks naturally eat a very diverse diet of basically any invertebrates, grains, or grasses they can suck down, however your standard farmed duck is primarily fed corn and soy. I’d avoid unless they are fed a more natural diet: bigger egg, more yolk, more PUFA.