Unscrambling Egg Shopping: Cage-Free or Pasture-Raised, Brown or White...?

+ recipe for Green Frittata---perfect for spring

Unscrambling Egg Shopping

You may have participated in an Easter egg hunt this past weekend, but there is another kind of egg hunt happening year-round that is a lot less fun: the hunt for which carton of eggs to buy at the store. The myriad of confusing claims on the shelf is nothing short of mind-boggling, so I thought I’d help clear things up here so you know which labels to pay attention to, and which to ignore.

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Farm Fresh, Natural

These claims are marketing terms which have no official meaning whatsoever. They are used to conjure a wholesome impression of the product for the consumer, like the picture of a farm might. Disregard these words, and any images of bucolic fields, for that matter.

Cage-Free, Free-Range, Pasture-Raised

These labels pertain to the way the egg-laying hens are treated.

Cage-free means the birds are housed in barns where they can walk freely, rather than being confined to cages. It doesn’t mean they spend any time outside, or in uncrowded conditions, however.  

Free-range means they are not only uncaged, they also have at least some access to the outdoors, even if it is just a tiny area.

Pasture-raised means the hens have access to pasture, with enough space to behave naturally, and peck for bugs and seeds.  

The issue is that there is no mandatory regulation of these terms for egg production. To insure that these claims are verifiable, that someone is literally watching the hen-house, look for products with third party certifications such as Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved or American Humane Certified.

Organic