Are these white organic hen's eggs worse or am I imagining?

[Hustle_]

I heard somewhere that the most reliably ethical way to buy hen's eggs is to buy organic as the living standards will match or exceed those of the best 'free range'. Fine. I can afford 40-50p an egg I suppose. But since I started buying them, they seem to have changed. Both M&S and Sainsbury's organic eggs have white shells now, which aren't as appealing to look at. Anyway, I also feel like the egg itself is different. I don't know if it is just the contrast against the white shell, but the white when cooked seems less firm and opaque. Also, if I'm honest, the organic eggs have always had less flavour than the ones I used to buy- Asda 'Exceptional' golden yolk or the M&S 'Collection' ones.

Seems like I'm going to have to choose between ethics and taste. Which doesn't seem right- It should be possible to buy ethical eggs which also taste the best?

It's a bit like 'fairtrade' bananas. Ethical, but always smaller and always less flavoursome. Annoying.

[Hustle_]

Oh also the organic eggs from the Londis have shells which are so thin and delicate that it is almost impossible to crack 'em without breaking the yolk? Breaking the yolk is one of the things which makes me angriest in this world for some reason.

[Mobile Chicane]

I'm not convinced 'organic' eggs are necessarily higher welfare standard.

Happy to be proved wrong though.

I get my eggs from a local farm where I can see the birds scratching around in the fields. Whites are nice and firm, never had a brittle shell.

[boyse7en]

Shell colour generally depends on the breed and diet of the hens. The public generally prefers brown eggs, so the farmers put stuff in the feed that makes the hens produce brown shells. White shells are more "natural" for the majority of mass-farmed hens in the UK.

[davidexige]

boyse7en said:

Shell colour generally depends on the breed and diet of the hens. The public generally prefers brown eggs, so the farmers put stuff in the feed that makes the hens produce brown shells. White shells are more "natural" for the majority of mass-farmed hens in the UK.

I never knew that and I’ve kept chickens for twenty years I know diet can effect the colour of the yolk, when we get rescue chickens, their yolks are quite pale but after a few weeks of free range they turn a deep yellow/orange colour, strange thing though I never notice any difference in the flavour.

[SlimJim16v]

There was something on the news about salmonella being linked to imported eggs.

[itcaptainslow]

Colour of the shell seems to be breed dependent - my mother used to keep chickens, and a couple laid white eggs, most the pale brown familiar to us and one laid blue!

All were magnificently tasty with a deep, rich yolk; firmly believe that's down to them being able to exhibit natural behaviours (read - being dicks at escaping at every opportunity but running towards you if you appeared holding a bucket of feed) and having a decent diet. Freshness definitely helps too, especially when poaching them. Eggs laid that morning always poached beautifully.