Are Your Eggs Fake?
I was alarmed, but not surprised to read an article in the paper at the weekend about mislabelled eggs.
Apparently a NSW farmer has been fined by the Food Authority for labelling and selling “barn laid eggs” as “free range”. In this particular case it sounds as thought here has been confusion between the farm and the Food Authority over what constitutes “free range” – however, it does raise the question as to how many eggs are dishonestly labelled.
When trying to lead a healthy Paleo lifestyle, choosing good quality ingredients is essential. Without the luxury to grow and rear your own ingredients, you have to take them on good faith. If something says it is organic and free range – you should be able to trust that it is. As well as the potential for fraud at the source of the eggs – in a large store there is also the chance that the eggs could have been swapped by a previous customer.
Stamping Eggs
Many countries, including the UK, stamp their eggs. This gives the consumer confidence that they eggs they select are exactly what they get. Fortunately over the next two years similar requirements are being rolled out across Australia. This will certainly help to give back some confidence on the quality of the eggs you choose.
How To Get Good Eggs?
The closer you can get to the source, the better. Keeping hens in your garden might be a bit unrealistic if you live in the city, but try farmers markets – and speak to the farmers. Find out where your neighbours and health conscious friends get their eggs from. When you find good eggs it will be obvious; the shells will be harder and the yolks are often a far richer gold colour. Once you find a good supplier – stick with them!
Are you suspicious about shop-bought eggs? Have you got any sources of great quality eggs? Please share in the comments below!
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Yes, eggs have definitely been a tricky one for us – I read an article a few months ago about how our usual brand of free range eggs (and the most popular one in NZ) was actually barely meeting the requirements, and fed their chickens special feed to make the yolks look more orange. Since then, we’ve been getting our eggs from a combination of farmers markets (the first ones we tried actually had very pale yellow yolks), and the more pricey but definitely free range ones at the supermarket. Last week we were lucky enough to have a friend bring us eggs from his farm, they’re tiny, but at least you can trust the quality!
I have been pretty impressed with EcoEggs lately. Just found them on the shelf at Woolies and have since checked out their website. Seems they are well on the frontfoot of looking after their little chickens and making sure it is all done the best. Costs a bit more but it is worth it. Check them out at http://www.ecoeggs.com.au. I don’t have anything to do with them but they definitely need to get kudos for doing such a good job.
Im lucky my in laws have chickens so we regularly get eggs from them. If I had a larger yard and didnt have my dog I would have some chickens they are good at keeping bugs out of the Veg patch and their poop is a great fertilizer. If i had purchased inaccurate labelled eggs i would be very angry.
We have 9 hens that we free range over about 3 acres. We have a rooster which means we can also raise our own meat birds. He is a real chauvinist and keeps the hens in order, and they follow him like the pied piper.
I have a nifty app called CluckAR that you can hold over the egg carton to see if it is truly free range. It rates the number of hens per square metre. I use that for supermarket eggs, but mostly buy from small producers at farmers markets. Good eggs are obviously more expensive, but I would rather pay for good eggs than hospital bills!