Everything You Need to Know About Eggs

There is some government oversight when it comes to labeling: Certain governing bodies, including the FDA, USDA, state agencies, and independent auditing firms, do indeed determine the guidelines for the phrasing used on egg carton labels, says Hongwei Xin, Ph.D., director of Iowa State University’s Egg Industry Center and professor of Agricultural Biosystems Engineering at ISU. And cartons often include not just certain phrasing, but also seals from these third-party auditing firms.

However, most of the label requirements are vague at best and farms aren’t required to use an auditing firm to confirm how they conform.

So how do you know if this carton of eggs with fancy words is worth $3 more than that plain carton of eggs?

Egg labels can be broken down into three components: the environment the hen was raised in, the health of the hen, and other attributes of the eggs themselves. Put the words together like a math formula and you can determine which dozen is worth your money.

Environment Labels

Conventional: OK, it won’t actually say “conventional.” But if the carton doesn’t have any of the labels listed below, then the hens are conventionally raised, which means they live and lay eggs in traditional battery cages, which are generally considered inhumane.

Cage-free: Eggs were laid by hens who lived without an individual cage in a building, room, or space with area to perch and nest. While this is certainly better than battery cages, most large-scale cage-free farms still have hens packed into tight quarters, Ranney points out.

Free-range: Eggs were laid by hens who have some access to the outdoors. The issue: There aren’t specific guidelines for how much access they actually have, which means hens raised in an over-filled barn with one rarely used door to the outside still qualify as “free-range.”

Pasture-raised: Eggs were laid by hens who roam and forage on a maintained pasture area outside. The USDA doesn’t recognize the labeling definition nor does it set the standards, so there are similar issues on how much pasture do the hens actually have, Ranney points out. However, outside of seeing the farm your eggs come from yourself, this labeling is your best bet for humanely treated hens.

Health Labels

Natural: “’Natural’ is the most meaningless term — who knows what that is supposed to imply, ” says Ranney. The term isn’t regulated by any governing body, Xin adds. In fact, he points out that “natural” is actually on the FDA’s list of terms to define and regulate in the next year.

Organic: With an official USDA seal, this term is the most regulated and reliable. To get certified, the hens must be raised in accordance with the USDA’s National Organic Program guidelines. “Certified organic eggs came from hens that were fed certified organic, non-GMO grain, free of hormones and antibiotics,” Ranney explains. What you can’t be confident of, though, is how the hen was treated, he adds.

Vegetarian-Fed: Hens were fed a vegetarian diet and not given supplements or additives in their feed. While we tend to associate vegetarian with being healthy, chickens are natural omnivores so they’re being kept from eating their natural fare of worms and small animals. Plus, vegetarian-fed doesn’t ensure that the eggs are organic; the feed given to the hens could very well be highly processed or GMO vegetables and grains — not actually “healthier.”

Hormone-free: This label sounds good, right? But it’s also a little bit deceptive — the American Egg Board points out that by law, laying hens are never fed hormones, so whether the carton calls it out or not, all eggs are hormone-free.

Antibiotic-free: This label means egg producers didn’t use any antibiotics in the feed or water of the hens. The list of FDA-approved antibiotics for laying flocks is pretty short to start — just three — and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association estimates that only a small percentage of hens ever receive antibiotics, although eggs from hens treated with antibiotics cannot be classified as antibiotic-free. But if the carton is rocking the USDA Certified Organic seal, the eggs are inherently free of antibiotics.

Omega-3 Enriched: Hens were fed a diet enhanced with omega-3s, producing eggs with 100 mg to 600 mg of the nutrient, compared to the typical 30 mg.

Pasteurized: Eggs have been heated to a temperature just below the coagulation point in order to destroy possible pathogens in the egg yolks and whites.