Did You Know – Brown vs. White Eggs
Check out these ten interesting facts between brown eggs and white eggs. Which one do you think is better for you and more nutritious? I think you will be surprised!
1. White eggs are preferred by consumers since they look cleaner and fresher than brown eggs.
2. Some people prefer brown eggs because it is easier to see the shell should it fall into the food that’s being prepared.
3. Both colors are a source of animal protein and a natural source of vitamins, proteins, fats, other nutrients and they contain heart-friendly unsaturated fats.
4. The brown eggs are relatively bigger than the white eggs and the egg yolks are typically darker.
5. We tend to believe that if something is expensive, it has to be better quality or better for you. The same goes for eggs; because brown eggs cost more, it is believed that they are more nutritious and better than the white eggs. Brown shelled eggs are relatively expensive in part because the chickens that produce them usually eat more, which adds up to the cost of their breeding.
6. White eggs are most often laid by white-feathered hens with white earlobes while brown eggs are often laid by red-feathered or dark/brown-colored hens with red earlobes.
7. Chefs usually prefer brown eggs because when it comes to food, the golden rule is that brown is better, whether it’s brown bread, brown sugar, or brown egg.
8. Government regulations require that the United States Department of Agriculture’s brown and white graded eggs must be carefully washed and sanitized.
9. Brown and white unwashed and unsanitized farm eggs will last around two weeks unrefrigerated and about three months or more in your refrigerator, however, it’s smart to refrigerate any unwashed fresh eggs you aren’t planning to eat immediately.
10. Which eggs do you think is better for you, white or brown eggs? The fact is, there is no difference between brown eggs and white eggs other than color.
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Source: http://www.differencebetween.net
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
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Categories: Did You Know, Eggs
Great information. The misconception of many is, brown eggs are healthier. But not true, brown eggs have the same nutrients as white eggs. And to be more accurate, the white eggs we buy in the market, come from Leg Horns and the Brown eggs are from Rhode Island Reds. I learned this as I had 3 back yard chickens for about 10 years. The back yard eggs also have the same flavor as store bought but the nutritional value is very different. The yokes are even darker due to allowing the chickens to eat what they do in the wild. Chickens are not vegetarians, they eat small rodents, small snakes, worms, grasshoppers and any other small flying creatures. I seen my chickens regularly chase down grasshoppers during the summer months. One even peck a little mouse 🐁 to death before she devoured it. We never coupled our chickens. That is why right now in 7 states the Bird flu is rampant. They are couped.
Thank you Randy
Your welcome. Before I had chickens in my yard, I would buy brown eggs time to time thinking they were healthier. Also England’s Best make the claim to be the healthiest at the store. But if you were to match their eggs against a back yard chicken egg 🥚 the back yard chicken would win the prize 🏆 🐔 🐓
We raised chickens for about 9 months so the kids could have a good learning experience. That will never happen again. 🤣
Yes the whole time my wife hated it. The 3 hung out at the back door waiting for me to give them their morning grain and meal worms 🐛 but while waiting they 💩ed 🤪😂😂😂 I did add that to my mulching pile though. So I always called them my little helpers. Every time my wife got upset I reminded her the money we didn’t spend on eggs at the store. Now eggs are so expensive I wish sometimes I had my chickens back ☹️
I feel for your wife! I see you are the optimist in the family. 🤣
Having grown up of a farm i know there is no difference in colours of eggs. We sold more brown than white to our customers . 3000 hens all Brown still gave us daily mostly dark brown eggs but still there were creamy white eggs among them . Grit improves shells and one should and must eat crushed shell with egg .Not all but a spoonfull each day improves body and heart. It has been proved many times that crushed egg shell is tonic to our systems .The egg is a complete meal in a sealed container but if egg is older that 5 days dump it as all goodness will be gone
Wow how interesting, that is a lot of chickens! I have never heard you should eat some of the shell before or that the goodness is gone in 5 days. Thank you!
Oh, Diana, it’s the other way round here in Kenya. We believe white eggs are much healthier than brown ones, haha. Reason? They are from home-bred traditional chickens who eat all and everything edible out in the woods. In fact, everywhere in my country, they are more expensive than the brown-shelled ones. People believe the brown-shelled eggs have lots of chemicals as a result of the chickens being fed with highly processed feeds, even the elderly say so. Haha. And then, there’s been this issue of processed eggs from China. That they all look brown. I don’t know how true it is.
Right Lamittan and now we have the bird flu going around again. The elders are the smart ones!
Oh yeah, I think so too. It’s unfortunate.
Very informative.
Thank you!
I would have gone for no difference, so thank you for the confirmation
You’re welcome Derrick!
Thank you, Diane, for this information! I also had the bias that brown eggs were healthier since it costs more, but now I know that that’s not true. But in general, I like brown eggs better because they are larger.
You’re welcome!
interesting !!
Thank you Beth!
All French eggs are brown. I’ve only ever seen white eggs in US. Thanks as always for interesting and informative post Diane.
How interesting Sheree, I didn’t know that, you’re welcome.
Interesting facts! I did not notice there’s a price different too! Brown or white I like them both 😉
Thank you Ribana. I have never bought anything but white eggs only because the brown cost more.
I too have a preference for brown eggs for the very reason you stated on your list, the perception that brown is healthier like in bread, pasta etc. Interesting to read a bit more about how they are different.
Thank you Ab!
Great article Diane! I buy both as I put them in a single layer container and then I can always tell which ones to use first. But I think I might stick to brown eggs after reading this. If the chefs are using them so should I ! Lol Not that I am a great chef haha
Thank you Susan! I buy the white eggs since there is no nutritional difference and because I am frugal (cheap) since brown eggs cost more. 🤣
I prefer brown eggs simply because they look like the eggs I used to gather from our chickens when I was a child.
Funny/true story: a famous woman with autism, Temple Grandin, who has a phd in animal husbandry, once said that white eggs are laid by neurotic chickens 🐓 😄
Since I prefer happy chickens and happy food I’ll stick with brown eggs! 🍳
OMG I love Temple Grandin! I saw the show of the livestock device she invented, brilliant! I had a client that was autistic and I would bring her to my house to watch movies, cook and do crafts . I had her watch that movie to try to inspire her to do more with no luck. That is so funny what she said about white eggs and that you like happy chickens! 🤣
The chef’s preference “golden rule” is amusing. I’m sure there is some reason for many things to be better if brown, but not across the board. It’s funny how things get ingrained. The best eggs I ever had were the ones where I raised the chickens myself. My “golden rule” is fresh is better! FYI, raising chickens is not particularly easy, but at one time in my life it was quite satisfying. I eat either kind, but visually prefer brown.
I agree Linda, walking out and grabbing your own eggs is the best. We bought baby chicks for the kids to have the experience. We had so many eggs I ended up making pasta with them and gave bags of them away as gifts. We had to buy the feed and it was so expensive and the kids lost interest so they became chicken soup. A good learning experience but never again! Lol
I prefer brown, for the reasons mentioned plus I used to backpack and would hard boil a dozen for the first couple days. Brown egg shells always seem stronger to me and would withstand cracking.
Brown egg shells are thicker because of the breed of the chicken that lays them. But the egg itself (inside) is the same as a white shell. How clever to take your eggs with you!!!!
From people I know who have chickens, I’ve learned that you don’t have to refrigerate fresh eggs, but having grown up always refrigerating eggs, I just can’t get my head around that.
Right it’s like we were brain washed. Lol
Those were interesting facts Diane. I didn’t know if there was a difference in quality of the eggs. Interesting that chefs prefer “brown everything”. My grandmother used to dye Easter eggs brown by boiling them with onion skins. She saved all the papery skins and did that every Easter. Yes, they were a bit boring looking. 🙂 I used to follow a blogger “Kim of Red Dirt Farm” (maybe you did too – can’t remember). She doesn’t blog anymore as she is more into her painting and creating jewelry now, but she had a roadside stand and would put out bunches of flowers from her cutting garden and fresh eggs. She’d put them on a table and you paid on the honor system. I once asked “so no one tries to steal anything including the cooler or refrigerator” and she said the fresh eggs don’t need refrigeration – that about blew my mind.
That’s because the coating hasn’t been destroyed by the cleaning and sanitizing that the commercial eggs get. I think I read as long as the chickens have been vaccinated you won’t get salmonella from them.
That’s interesting. Have you ever had a embryo instead of a yolk. My mom cracked an egg and there was a chicken embryo. She always cracked eggs in a separate bowl before putting it in the ingredients – I think you do this too. So nothing was spoiled, but I remember she said she felt sick seeing it. She wondered how it missed the candling process and didn’t get discarded at the egg plant.
OMG that would have grossed me out too! You know they eat Balut in other countries. It is a fertilized developing egg embryo that is boiled or steamed and eaten from the shell. You know I eat everything but this is one I don’t think I could handle.
I just Googled to read more about Balut which I’ve never heard of (but I am not the wordliest person when it comes to food). Ugh – the photos of it and that would not appeal to me in the least either.
Wonderful tips, number nine was very interesting!
I always saw pictures in magazines of eggs in wire baskets sitting on the counter. I thought they were just for showcasing the picture then I found out the eggs had a protective coating when fresh. I had chickens and still refrigerated mine. Lol
Always thought the preference of one over the other was a regional thing. In New England brown eggs used to be preferred, but I think this has changed over the years. Personally, I don'[t see much difference between them and buy whatever is cheapest that day. Eggs is eggs. 🙂
Absolutely!
Very interesting!
Thank you!
So interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing.
I never saw white eggs until I moved to America. At the time, it was odd and I wouldn’t buy them; let alone eat them. That was several years ago. Now it really doesn’t matter – I eat them both.
What’s more confusing for me is the “marketing” of the eggs: laid by grass-fed, free range, pasture-raised, etc.
Thank you! I am hearing a lot of places only have brown eggs. Most people really believe they are better but there is no difference. I honestly don’t know about the difference in grass-fed etc. When we had our chickens it was for about 6 months and we had them in our pole barn. It was so expensive to feed them with purchased feed that they became soup in the freezing winter when the eggs stopped.
Now we know that there’s no difference. Thanks for the informative post.
You’re so welcome!
We find very few white eggs for sale in our grocery stores. In fact, I think the only white eggs in our stores, are Easter chocolate eggs 😄!
I have heard from many bloggers that the USA is almost the only place that sells the white eggs.