Free-range, Organic and Vegetarian Eggs

Hi everyone, it’s my first post here on my blog. First of all, this post will talk about chicken eggs. I’ve always been a huge fan of eggs. I eat eggs almost every day and it’s just tasty and super easy to cook.

When I was a little, I only knew one type of chicken eggs. But now, if you go to supermarkets, they have lots of different eggs for different needs and consumers such as free range, cage free, organic, vegetarian, omega 3, etc. They are also available in different sizes.  In the name of research, I picked up three different types of eggs that I had never tried before. Two different techniques were used to find the differences between these eggs in terms of flavor, smell and taste.  Moreover, at the end of my research I found something interesting about the nutrition fact. So, stay tuned!

What did I pick?

1.    Free-range eggs. A box of 12 costs me $6.

2.    Organic eggs. A box of 6 costs me $5

3.    Vegetarian eggs. A box of 12 costs me $5

These eggs will be compared to the normal eggs that I have at home which normally costs $3 per box of 12.

Techniques

First of all, I fried those eggs with a little bit of oil on a flat pan. Second, the eggs were boiled in the same pot.

Process

On the first day, I fried all the eggs on a hot flat pan. When the normal egg hit the pan, the white spread out immediately, filled up the pan and formed a long uncertain shape. However, it didn’t happen with the free range and organic eggs. When the free range and organic got its own turn, the white didn’t go all over the pan but formed a pretty nice round shape instead. But I think it’s just because the normal egg I used wasn’t as fresh as the others. Anyway, I asked my cousins (flatmates) to taste the eggs. I didn’t tell them which one is the normal egg. Here are the results:

Cousin A: She just preferred the organic one.

Cousin B: He preferred the free-range one because the texture was the smoothest.

My opinion: I think the free range and organic eggs are odorless and cleaner in taste. If I had to choose one, I’ll go with the organic eggs.

However, my experiment didn’t stop right there. The next day, I bought a case of vegetarian eggs. This time, I boiled them all together and put them in different bowls. I asked the same people as yesterday to do the blind testing once again. Here are the results before I told them which egg in which bowl:

Cousin A: Her favorites were the normal and organic eggs. She didn’t like the taste of vegetarian eggs.

Cousin B: His favorite was the normal egg.

After that, I asked them to guess which one is the normal egg. They came up with the bowl A and D which is the free-range and organic ones.

Differences

There are some differences between these eggs in terms of texture, flavor, taste, color, farming and packaging system.  After done with the blind testing, we experience the left over eggs and explore them once again. We noticed that each egg is slightly different from the other. Free-range egg tastes a bit saltier than others while vegetarian egg tastes very weak and plain. In terms of texture and color, the yolk of each egg is different for some reason. Organic has the yellow orange-ish color/brightest yolk and the vegetarian egg has the palest yolk ever. However, in my conclusion, these eggs might taste just slightly different and you won’t notice it if you didn’t know its organic or free-range.

Anyway, here are the truly differences between these eggs:

Free-Range eggs: Eggs produced by hens that have access to outdoors, fresh food and water, and may forage for wild plants and insects.

Organic eggs: Eggs laid by free-roaming hens that are certified organic feed. These hens have access to outdoors and free from antibiotics and growth hormones.

Vegetarian eggs: could be seen from the picture below

Fun Facts (sounds like Ted Mosby)

1.    In my research, there has been a pros and cons about the nutrient content of these eggs. But, my research shows that they all have the same nutrient content and vitamin in each egg. The difference could be depending on the size of the egg.

2.     In the first round, my cousins didn’t get tricked. It could be caused by “mindless eating” theory. “Mindless Eating” is a book that I’ve been reading recently. This book breaks down why people eat more than they need, why we use our eyes to judge and taste food more than our tongue. In this case, the shape of normal organic and free-range fried eggs were much more nicer than the normal one. So, the eyes might judge the nice one as the winner in taste and send it to brain.

3.     American magazine called mother earth news found that Free-range and organic eggs are pretty much producer’s marketing strategy. These hens might have access to outdoors, but, in reality, they don’t usually go outside and stay in the cage instead (because chickens always stay near foods and water supply located in cage). If you truly care about nutrition, I would suggest you to buy the real free-range or also called pastured eggs. Pastured eggs contain:

1/4 less cholesterol

1/4 less saturated fat

2/3 more vitamin A

2 times more omega-3 fatty acids

3 times more vitamin E

7 times more beta-carotene

4 to 6 times as much vitamin D

What are pastured eggs? They are eggs produced by hens raised on pasture and eat natural diets, insects and worms.

If you are interested to see more about the research, please check out motherearthnews.com

People are now becoming health and environmental conscious. They chose to buy these eggs because they know and conscious that they came from happier and healthier hens. What do you think about these eggs? Which type of eggs did you buy? And also let know if you want to know more about the “Mindless eating theory”. Cheers.