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03-30-2016, 03:25 PM
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Cage-free. All natural. No antibiotics. What's the difference? Egg cartons today boast a myriad of attention-grabbing yet ill-defined phrases. While some are highly regulated government certifications, others are subject to minimal scrutiny: In other words, they can mean a whole lotta nothin'. We break it down for you.
The "Don't Be Impressed By This" Category
No matter what nature scene a marketer puts on the package, All Natural will continue to be "just a marketing ploy," says Mick Bessire, an agricultural educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension. "It doesn't really have any regulatory status. It has the connotation that no antibiotics were used in the production, but that is not always the case," he says. "They can be in battery cages or have their beaks trimmed and still be called natural." Battery cages are small cages on conventional egg farms where chickens live out their lives. United Egg Producers (UEP), an industry trade organization and basically the industry standard (representing ownership of about 94 percent of egg-laying hens), allows 0.46 to 0.59 square feet per bird, often compared to the size of a sheet of paper. A study in British Poultry Science, however, contends that chickens need more space than that (0.58 to 1 square feet) to simply turn around.
Farm Fresh has a cute ring to it, but this, too, holds no real meaning. For best freshness indicator, find the Julian (packaging) date.
Lastly, don't let No Hormones hold any weight in your egg choice. Is it incorrect? No. But the USDA bans hormone use in egg-laying hens, so companies that use it as a marketing ploy are essentially patting themselves on the backs for not breaking the law. Don't give them extra credit for doing so.
The "Well-Intended but Hard to Guarantee What You're Getting" Category
Cage-Free, Free-Range, and Pasture-Raised: Each conjures up the image of chickens pecking freely and happily around a field, but since the phrases are different, they must be held to different standards, right? The regulations spell out only qualifiable, and not quantifiable, requirements.
Cage-Free is a voluntary label recognized by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) as birds permitted to roam a room, building, or enclosure without the confines of battery cages. They aren't guaranteed access to the outdoors, or even much personal space--again, it's not quantified--but they do have a little more room to flap. For example, a cage-free establishment near Hershey, Pennsylvania, has 18,000 birds in house, all with no access to the outdoors but plenty of opportunity to perch and dust bathe, things chickens instinctively do for safety and hygiene respectively.
Free-Range (or Free-Roaming) is another voluntary label, which means that chickens have access to the outdoors. Specifics--like how much time and space allotted outdoors--aren't stipulated by the AMS. Having a door on the barn doesn't mean it actually opens for a chicken to get outside, but it does mean it's possible.
For eggs with cage-free and free-range claims, AMS personnel visit each egg production site twice per year to verify animal husbandry practices.
Pasture-Raised isn't defined by the AMS. Labeling rules for pasture-raised products haven't been developed, the organization says, "due to the number of variables involved in pasture-raised agricultural systems."
Mike Badger, executive director of the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association, says pasture-raised (or pastured poultry) is a model in which birds are raised outdoors based on time of year, location, and age of the birds; and likely on a rotated pasture: One spot this week, a different spot next. "If you let the chickens repeatedly forage in the same ground, they're eventually going to turn it into a dirt lot, no matter the size," Badger says. "Rotate the pasture for both soil health and bird health. New pasture moves chickens away from their own manure onto fresh green grass, with the chance to forage for bugs."
Plus: How to Incubate Chicken Eggs
What About Grading?
In descending order, the USDA grades eggs as AA, A, or B. AAs are of the best quality, Bs are the least. Anything below a B is not graded and not put out on store shelves. To be graded at all, eggs must be clean and unbroken--B eggs are perfectly edible, and the lower rating should not necessarily discount them from your breakfast menu. Undesirable external qualities such as bumps, ridges, thin spots, or deviation from a perfect oval shape may knock an egg from a higher to a lower grade; and such internal qualities include a thinner egg white (determined by candling, where an egg is rotated over a light that allows one to see the inside contents of the shell without cracking it open), smaller yolk, and a larger air sac.
"With less of an air sac, there's more egg to AAs," explains Bessire. "The air sac is good if you're hatching eggs--it gives the embryos a little more breathing room, so to speak--but it's not particularly good if you're looking for a bigger, better omelette."
And Size?
The descriptors jumbo, extra large, medium, and so on refer to the average weight of one dozen eggs. This is the breakdown, which probably only matters if you're seeking the best-size egg for a recipe:
Small: 18 ounces (about 1.5 ounce per egg)
Medium: 21 ounces (about 1.75 ounce per egg)
Large: 24 ounces (about 2 ounces per egg)
Extra-Large: 27 ounces (about 2.25 ounces per egg)
Jumbo: 30 ounces (about 2.5 ounces per egg)
What's the Deal With Shell Color?
Your grocer's egg fridge is likely stocked with cartons of ovoid white eggs. In the last handful of years, brown eggs have started keeping them company. Were the white ones bleached? Are the brown ones healthier? Rumors abound, but both answers are no.
Egg color depends on the breed of hen and can range from white, cream, brown, blue, and green. According to Bessire, hens tend to lay eggs with a color related to that of their earlobes, not their feathers. Red earlobes? Brown eggs. White earlobes? White eggs.
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-03-25-1458924659-1551665-woodleywonderworkseggsflickr1-thumb.jpg (http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-03-25-1458924659-1551665-woodleywonderworkseggsflickr1.jpg)
Flickr; wworks
<strong>Plus: Our Guide to Buying Ethical Coffee
The Modern Farmer Guide to Types of Apples
A Guide To The Roots and Tubers You Didn't Know You Loved -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Flickr; beantin
Cage-free. All natural. No antibiotics. What's the difference? Egg cartons today boast a myriad of attention-grabbing yet ill-defined phrases. While some are highly regulated government certifications, others are subject to minimal scrutiny: In other words, they can mean a whole lotta nothin'. We break it down for you.
The "Don't Be Impressed By This" Category
No matter what nature scene a marketer puts on the package, All Natural will continue to be "just a marketing ploy," says Mick Bessire, an agricultural educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension. "It doesn't really have any regulatory status. It has the connotation that no antibiotics were used in the production, but that is not always the case," he says. "They can be in battery cages or have their beaks trimmed and still be called natural." Battery cages are small cages on conventional egg farms where chickens live out their lives. United Egg Producers (UEP), an industry trade organization and basically the industry standard (representing ownership of about 94 percent of egg-laying hens), allows 0.46 to 0.59 square feet per bird, often compared to the size of a sheet of paper. A study in British Poultry Science, however, contends that chickens need more space than that (0.58 to 1 square feet) to simply turn around.
Farm Fresh has a cute ring to it, but this, too, holds no real meaning. For best freshness indicator, find the Julian (packaging) date.
Lastly, don't let No Hormones hold any weight in your egg choice. Is it incorrect? No. But the USDA bans hormone use in egg-laying hens, so companies that use it as a marketing ploy are essentially patting themselves on the backs for not breaking the law. Don't give them extra credit for doing so.
The "Well-Intended but Hard to Guarantee What You're Getting" Category
Cage-Free, Free-Range, and Pasture-Raised: Each conjures up the image of chickens pecking freely and happily around a field, but since the phrases are different, they must be held to different standards, right? The regulations spell out only qualifiable, and not quantifiable, requirements.
Cage-Free is a voluntary label recognized by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) as birds permitted to roam a room, building, or enclosure without the confines of battery cages. They aren't guaranteed access to the outdoors, or even much personal space--again, it's not quantified--but they do have a little more room to flap. For example, a cage-free establishment near Hershey, Pennsylvania, has 18,000 birds in house, all with no access to the outdoors but plenty of opportunity to perch and dust bathe, things chickens instinctively do for safety and hygiene respectively.
Free-Range (or Free-Roaming) is another voluntary label, which means that chickens have access to the outdoors. Specifics--like how much time and space allotted outdoors--aren't stipulated by the AMS. Having a door on the barn doesn't mean it actually opens for a chicken to get outside, but it does mean it's possible.
For eggs with cage-free and free-range claims, AMS personnel visit each egg production site twice per year to verify animal husbandry practices.
Pasture-Raised isn't defined by the AMS. Labeling rules for pasture-raised products haven't been developed, the organization says, "due to the number of variables involved in pasture-raised agricultural systems."
Mike Badger, executive director of the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association, says pasture-raised (or pastured poultry) is a model in which birds are raised outdoors based on time of year, location, and age of the birds; and likely on a rotated pasture: One spot this week, a different spot next. "If you let the chickens repeatedly forage in the same ground, they're eventually going to turn it into a dirt lot, no matter the size," Badger says. "Rotate the pasture for both soil health and bird health. New pasture moves chickens away from their own manure onto fresh green grass, with the chance to forage for bugs."
Plus: How to Incubate Chicken Eggs
What About Grading?
In descending order, the USDA grades eggs as AA, A, or B. AAs are of the best quality, Bs are the least. Anything below a B is not graded and not put out on store shelves. To be graded at all, eggs must be clean and unbroken--B eggs are perfectly edible, and the lower rating should not necessarily discount them from your breakfast menu. Undesirable external qualities such as bumps, ridges, thin spots, or deviation from a perfect oval shape may knock an egg from a higher to a lower grade; and such internal qualities include a thinner egg white (determined by candling, where an egg is rotated over a light that allows one to see the inside contents of the shell without cracking it open), smaller yolk, and a larger air sac.
"With less of an air sac, there's more egg to AAs," explains Bessire. "The air sac is good if you're hatching eggs--it gives the embryos a little more breathing room, so to speak--but it's not particularly good if you're looking for a bigger, better omelette."
And Size?
The descriptors jumbo, extra large, medium, and so on refer to the average weight of one dozen eggs. This is the breakdown, which probably only matters if you're seeking the best-size egg for a recipe:
Small: 18 ounces (about 1.5 ounce per egg)
Medium: 21 ounces (about 1.75 ounce per egg)
Large: 24 ounces (about 2 ounces per egg)
Extra-Large: 27 ounces (about 2.25 ounces per egg)
Jumbo: 30 ounces (about 2.5 ounces per egg)
What's the Deal With Shell Color?
Your grocer's egg fridge is likely stocked with cartons of ovoid white eggs. In the last handful of years, brown eggs have started keeping them company. Were the white ones bleached? Are the brown ones healthier? Rumors abound, but both answers are no.
Egg color depends on the breed of hen and can range from white, cream, brown, blue, and green. According to Bessire, hens tend to lay eggs with a color related to that of their earlobes, not their feathers. Red earlobes? Brown eggs. White earlobes? White eggs.
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-03-25-1458924659-1551665-woodleywonderworkseggsflickr1-thumb.jpg (http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-03-25-1458924659-1551665-woodleywonderworkseggsflickr1.jpg)
Flickr; wworks
<strong>Plus: Our Guide to Buying Ethical Coffee
The Modern Farmer Guide to Types of Apples
A Guide To The Roots and Tubers You Didn't Know You Loved -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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