Organic eggs are no more nutritious

Free-range eggs are no better for you than battery eggs, a new study has shown.

Eggs produced by free-range hens are often perceived by the public to be nutritionally superior to eggs obtained from battery chickens.

But a recent scientific study has called this popular perception into question by finding essentially no differences in the nutritional quality of eggs produced by hens from both systems.

The Poultry Science Association findings also showed that cholesterol levels in all eggs were lower than U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, prompting the USDA to review and revise downward its estimates for average cholesterol levels in eggs.

The author of the study, which appeared in Poultry Science, was Dr. Kenneth E. Anderson, a Professor in the Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University.

He carried out two-year study using 500 young chickens and moved the ones for the free range environment 12 weeks after hatching.

Eggs

After maturing, they collected egg samples at 50, 62 and 74 weeks and sent them to four different laboratories commonly used for egg nutrient analysis.

The results showed no influence of housing environment on egg levels of vitamin A or vitamin E.

However, carotene levels were higher in the range eggs, which, according to Dr. Anderson, may have contributed to the darker colored yolks observed in these eggs during the study.

The study also found no difference in cholesterol content between free range and battery produced eggs.

Based on these results, Dr. Anderson concluded that ‘a significant nutritional advantage of eggs produced by chickens housed on range versus in cages could not be established.’

He added: ‘The key takeaway from this research is that an egg, no matter where it’s produced, is a very nutritious product.

‘Eggs from a range production environment did have higher levels of total fat than eggs produced by caged hens, but they did not have higher levels of cholesterol.

‘Perhaps the most striking finding was that both cage and range produced eggs actually have lower cholesterol levels than previously believed, which has led the USDA to lower the cholesterol guidelines for eggs in the USDA Nutrient Database for shell eggs to 185 mg per egg, down from 213 mg.’