Clucky about Eggs

Eggs are one of the most simple yet extremely nutritious food sources. Crack open the shell to find a rich source of protein, vitamins and minerals required for daily life. You could say eggs are eggcellent!

Okay, so I had to make that joke, one of the downsides to eggs these days is that there are so many available on the market. By this I mean to say that we are flooded by the type of egg we need. Picture yourself walking down the supermarket aisle looking for plain old eggs. Instead you spot cage eggs, barn-laid, free-range and even ones with little smiley faces on them.

So what are the major differences between these types of eggs, and which are the most fairly produced – both for you the consumer and the bird that laid them?

Let’s start with the generic cage egg. Even the name sounds daunting. Imagine yourself as a tiny, innocent little chicken. You wake up each morning and try to reach around to prune your feathers, but you can’t, you’re cramped in a minuscule jail cell that wraps itself tightly around you, not even able to move! You cluck for help but the noise gets lost in the million other calls from your fellow inmates who like you are also suffering the same fate. It sounds silly but unfortunately these are the conditions experienced by many cage hens. Most are underfed and forced to reside in dark and inhumane conditions, all for the sake of a few dollars saved by us the consumers in the supermarket. If you are concerned about the ethics of egg production then cage eggs are the ones to avoid.

The second category is known as the barn-laid egg. Also referred to as cage-free eggs, these are probably the most economical and ethical choice. According to the RSPCA, a barn laying hen is ‘free to roam within a large shed, will have space for perching, litter for scratching and dust bathing’.

The final and most-ethical choice lies in the free-range egg. What comes to mind is a vision of healthy hens running wild through the lush green countryside. Enjoying their days in happy, peaceful manner. This romantic and ideal treatment will provide the best egg. Free Range and Poultry Australia suggests that a free-range hen will have ‘free access to an area during daylight hours which will contain shade, shelter and palatable vegetation, with a maximum range density of 750 birds per hectare’. The main strategy is to provide birds with a stress-free environment.

So which egg is right for me? The moral to this story is to do your homework. Before buying your eggs, research the individual companies and find out about the way in which their eggs are produced. A good starting point would be the RSPCA’s Human Food Finder which can be found at http://www.rspca.org.au/shophumane . This site provides access to a range of products that have been certified as free from animal harm.

Brendon D’Souza a.k.a. The Smiling Chef