Egg Labeling

Egg labeling can be confusing, and maybe many marketers mean for it to be.  “Confuse the consumer” may be their mantra so they can avoid expensive certifications and treatment of the chickens, but still sell eggs at a premium price as if they are something special.  Education is the key to buying eggs and knowing what the labels really mean.

Trader Joe's Egg Label Education Poster

USDA Certified Organic requires the flocks are fed organic feed without animal or poultry by-products; the birds have access to the outdoors, shade, shelter, exercise areas, fresh air, and direct sunlight; barn lighting no longer than the longest day of sunlight; no antibiotic use; and no induced molting. 

Biodynamic farming is a nongovernmental certification that declares the entire farm as sustainable and biodynamic.  These rules are more stringent than those for organic food production.  Biodynamic food producers adopt overall lifestyles that strive to preserve water, energy, and surrounding natural habitat.  They observe farming methods that allow natural livestock behaviors.  Egg-laying hens must be outdoors as much as possible, vegetarian-fed with 80% of feed produced on the farm, and subjected to no growth promoters, antibiotics, or practices such as beak trimming and forced molting.

Certified Humane label comes from the Human Farm Animal Care organization, which verifies that the farm meets certain criteria for the humane treatment of hens, including cage-free environments with natural living space, an environment that allows for natural behaviors like preening and scratching, vegetarian feed, and no antibiotics in the feed. 

Free Farmed eggs provide a guarantee that claims such as “free range”, “cage-free” and “no antibiotics” are genuine.  Farmers must also have clean living conditions and safe waste management systems.

Kosher eggs have been examined for blood spots since Jewish dietary laws prohibit the consumption of blood. All USDA-certified eggs are examined for this flaw, so most government-certified brands are labeled as kosher.

Other labels such as cage-free, free-roaming, or free-range are not verified.  About 90% of American hens are raised in cages that restrict the hens living space. According to the USDA and FDA, “cage-free” means the birds live outside cages but are still confined to an enclosed building.  Some producers use the term “free-roaming” to mean the same thing as “cage-free”. Keep in mind that “cage-free” does not necessarily mean that the hens are sun-bathing everyday – hens like to stay near their nests, food, and water and may not actually venture outside.  An argument against free-range hens is that they are exposed to avian diseases from migratory fowl and salmonella from rodents than hens in cages whose environment is limited.

Grass-Fed labeling has no USDA-approved definition and, therefore, no regulation.  Chickens cannot live on only grass -- they need protein as part of their natural diet. If left to their own devices, chickens eat bugs for protein.  They should be fed a ration of legumes, grains, fish meal, vitamins and minerals, and a bit of corn.  If you see marketing terms on eggs such as “100% grass fed”, it is not a healthy hen and you shouldn’t buy them.  The more accurate term may be Patured hen, but this label is, likewise, unregulated.

Raised Without Antibiotics means that the chickens have never received antibiotics from birth to slaughter as growth promotion or as medicine. This term is defined by the USDA and regulated by requiring the farms to show paperwork proving the claim. Labels like “No Antibiotics Used” or “Not Fed Antibiotics” are not well understood because they imply the chickens were not given growth promoting antibiotics but may have still received antibiotics for disease.  Unfortunately, there is no valid system to audit these claims.

Vegetarian Fed means the chicken ate a diet that includes grains, corn, cottonseed, and soybean meal, but no man-made feed containing animal or fish proteins with grains.

Some labels should be read critically to determine the oversight of the individual farm’s practices.  For example, Hormone Free is a misleading term because the law has disallowed use of hormones in poultry for over forty years.  Likewise, Additive-Free is meaningless because additives are not permitted in egg production anyway and the hard shell prevents the insertion of chemicals.  Farm Fresh is redundant because all eggs are raised on farms of one size or another. Eggs are one of nature’s most perfect natural protein sources, so when Natural as a label means nothing.  Fertile as a label means that the hen was raised in a yard with roosters and the egg may be fertile.  The USDA normally discards fertile eggs. Fertile eggs may contain slightly higher levels of male hormones, but are not significantly more nutritious than unfertile eggs.

All eggs, regardless of labeling, have similar nutrition profiles.  A large egg has 70 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, and 6 grams of protein.  White-shelled eggs and brown-shelled eggs are the same; the egg shell color just depends on the breed of chicken. Omega-3 eggs come from chickens whose feed has been enriched with omega-3 fatty acids.

Blogger Dan Greenblatt came up with an egg label cheat-sheet to fold up and put in a wallet.  This can serve as a reminder when you are at the grocery store regarding the meaning of egg labels. 

Resources:

Are specialty eggs worth the price?. (2011, April/May). Clean Eating, 4(4), 23.

Greenblatt, Dan. (2008, September 20). Egg labeling guide based on new york times article. Retrieved from http://dangreenblatt.com/blog/2008/09/20/nyt-egg-labeling/  

Greenblatt, Dan. (2008, September 9). Trader joe’s wants you to know your eggs. Retrieved from http://dangreenblatt.com/blog/2008/09/09/trader-joes-eggs 

Stewart, K.L. (2007). Eating between the lines. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin.