Organically and conventionally produced eggs' quality 'not different'

Washington, July 8 (ANI): A new study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has found that there's no substantial quality difference between organically and conventionally produced eggs.

ARS food technologist Deana Jones and her team in the agency's Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit in Athens, Ga., found that the biggest difference was the size of egg within a carton between brown and white eggs. Though brown eggs weighed more, white shell eggs had higher percentages of total solids and crude fat.

Quality is measured by Haugh units, named after Raymond Haugh and is considered to be the "gold standard" of interior egg quality determination.

About 6.5 billion dozen shell eggs are produced each year in the United States, with a value of about 7 billion dollars, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service.

Jones and her team conducted a survey of white and brown large-shell eggs with various production and nutritional differences such as traditional, cage-free, free-roaming, pasteurized, nutritionally-enhanced, and fertile. The goal was to determine if physical quality and compositional differences exist among these different eggs.

Among the claims most often addressed on shell egg cartons are: husbandry practices, hen nutrition, enhanced egg nutrition (omega-3), organic and fertile

This research was published in the journal Poultry Science. (ANI)