What Are Organic Eggs?
Four Advantages Over Normal Eggs
If you’ve ever wondered what makes organic eggs special, here are four reasons to spend a little extra on them when you’re at the grocery store.
When you’re at the grocery store, there are dozens of egg brands competing for your dollar with a dizzying number of marketing terms. Biggest and loudest of them all: Organic, often plastered across the entire egg carton on a bright, eye-catching label for good measure.
Egg producers want you to know about these eggs—they’re impossible to miss on the shelf—but it’s a little less obvious what makes them worth spending $3 extra. Even if you decide to do a bit of sleuthing on the internet, you’ll have a hard time finding a satisfactory answer, particularly because you’ll find a lot of contradictory opinions about them. Do they taste better than normal eggs? Are they actually healthier? Often, it depends on who you ask and how deep you feel like digging.
Organic vs. Regular Eggs: What’s the Difference?
When it comes to produce, organic feels like a description that explains itself. Less processing, fewer chemicals and pesticides, and no genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It paints a picture of crops being allowed to grow as they’re naturally meant to. With eggs, however, it’s a little less obvious. It’s not like a non-organic egg is laid by a robot. Organic or not, they’re all coming from a living chicken. But the difference is the chicken’s environment. Was the chicken allowed to grow naturally? A hen’s diet and her environment can hugely affect egg production.
Certification and Labeling
There are three critical points that separate a United States Agriculture Department (USDA)-certified organic egg from a conventional one. Most importantly, the hen must be fed an all-natural “organic” diet. That means higher quality feed with no GMOs, artificial preservatives or flavoring, or chemicals like pesticides mixed in. Chickens must also be allowed a certain amount of time to roam outside. They must meet the USDA’s standards for “free-range” eggs, a different classification associated with the hens’ quality of life. This also affects the hens’ diet, as it allows them time and space to forage for more natural sources of food.
Lastly, chickens must grow without the help of antibiotics or growth hormones. U.S. law bans hormone use on hens in general, so conventional eggs should meet some of these requirements at a minimum. All of that said, a lot of these rules, such as the outdoor requirements, are vague and open to interpretation. Some brands avoid the spirit of the rules, while others go above and beyond the required minimums. If you’re particularly concerned about the quality of your organic eggs, you can go to The Cornucopia Institute for in-depth scorecards on individual brands.
What About Cage-Free, Free-Range, and Pasture-Raised Eggs?
Besides organic, you’ve probably also seen all kinds of catch phrases colorfully plastered over egg cartons in your local grocery store. Everything from “free roaming” labels to claims about how happy the chickens are. Most of these are pure marketing with no requirements attached, but others have an official certification. The ones you’ll see most often are a trio of quality of life labels: cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised.
Think of these labels as a sliding scale of how much space and freedom a chicken has to roam around on the farm. Cage-free is a step up from the average chicken farm, but still keeps the flock inside a relatively packed barn. On the opposite end, pasture-raised certifications not only require chickens to have access to the outside, but also a minimum amount of space to themselves.
Are Pasture-Raised and Organic Eggs the Same?
Very importantly: No. Chickens can have all the space in the world outside and still not be fed a fully organic diet. And until a rule change that won’t be enforced until 2029, chickens could live in faux-outdoor “porch” spaces and still be certified organic.
It is possible to find brands that are both pasture-raised and certified organic by the USDA, but just make sure you check for both labels or do some independent research if you want the most humane, best possible eggs.
Four Reasons To Buy Organic Eggs
Health Considerations
Between organic feed and more natural food sources, organic hens have a vastly improved diet, and those nutrients get passed on through their eggs. When you crack an organic egg open, take a look at the yolk. That orange-y color is a sign that the hen had access to pasture because the pigments in foraged insects, weeds, and grasses result in a brighter hue.
In particular, some studies suggest that organic raising can lead to higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins A and E, and antioxidants. These nutrients perform a number of functions, from keeping your individual cells healthy to improve cardiovascular health, as well as maintaining healthy eyes.
If you’re concerned about GMOs or artificial preservatives in your food, organic is the safest way to go: All certified organic foods must be raised without synthetic fertilizers, GMOs, or antibiotics, including the feed that the animals consume.
Animal Welfare Concerns
Consumers have become increasingly aware of how their eggs get produced, and a fair number of them don’t like what they see. As Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have become more visible in the public consciousness, there’s been a growing and sizable group of consumers who insist on better conditions for their poultry. For these consumers, organic offers a kinder, gentler alternative. The organic egg market is founded on the desire to treat our livestock more humanely. While eating organic has other perks, the main argument for these eggs is an ethical one.
Environmental Impact
Organic egg farming practices aren’t just kinder to the chickens—they’re easier on the environment, too. CAFOs are big time polluters, especially to their local water sources. Their tightly packed warehouses rack up big electricity costs. Like a lot of industrial operations, they’re huge water guzzlers, consuming massive amounts of water. In all of these ways, they are an unsustainable drain on their environment.
Organic farming methods tend to be more sustainable. When a farm’s chickens are allowed to graze over a wide area instead of packing thousands in a barn, a farm’s environmental impact drops dramatically. Waste spread over a wider area means it isn’t all getting concentrated and dumped into water sources. Plus, when hens spend less time indoors, that means using less electricity on lights and ventilation, in turn, meaning less pollution. Also, natural foraging reduces the need for feed.
Aesthetic Factors
The better a chicken’s diet, the deeper the color of the yolk, leading to that Instagram-worthy orange shade. If you’re just making scrambled eggs for yourself 15 minutes after rolling out of bed, this probably isn’t a big deal. But if you’re purchasing for a restaurant or just really pride yourself on your ability to impress with a home-cooked meal, presentation does matter.
Organic Eggs: Perception vs. Reality
One item you might have noticed missing from this list: taste! Organic and non-organic eggs taste virtually the same. Other factors, such as the egg’s freshness, are what will influence a particular egg’s taste most. Even then, a little basic seasoning in your own kitchen will do far more to affect the flavor of your eggs.
Despite that, you will still find this point hotly debated on the internet. You’ll find plenty of discussions and food blog experiments on whether organic eggs noticeably taste better or if that’s just the placebo effect talking. For every supporter, you’ll find a skeptic. In this case, beauty is quite literally in the eye of the beholder.
Serious Eats’ J Kenji Lopez-Alt ran a notable experiment several years ago in which he had taste testers see if they could taste the difference in organic eggs. At first, most testers initially thought that those organic eggs with their orange hue tasted better, but once that color was removed by a food dye, they couldn’t tell the difference. That said, even if your mind is tricking you into thinking orange eggs taste better, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Lopez-Alt himself made the argument best in his article: “I’m going to continue eating the freshest eggs I can find produced by the most humanely raised chickens because I care a bit about the chickens’ well-being. The fact that my mind tricks me into thinking these eggs are actually better tasting is just the icing on the cake.”
Is it Worth Paying More for Organic Eggs?
When it comes to buying organic, the primary benefits are health-related—both the chickens’ and your own. If you have any concern for the welfare of your poultry, it is worth purchasing certified organic eggs. However, not all organic hens are cared for equally and you can only trust an organic certification up to a certain point.
You can, for example, safely assume that organic hens were not raised in an egg factory. You cannot, however, assume that they actually got to walk around foraging for insects in a chicken paradise like a lot of egg producers want you to imagine. If you’re already in the egg aisle trying to decide between brands, it’s a good reference point, but it’s not the whole picture.
For the health-conscious, organic eggs do offer advantages, primarily due to their increased amount of Omega-3s. These eggs can cost a little extra. But if you do have some cash to spare, the ethical considerations make it a no-brainer.
Join the Growing Trend—Try Organic Today!
Organic eggs are an increasingly popular option at the supermarket. As consumers are growing more conscious of how their food is made, they’re switching to more ethical products and the USDA is growing stricter with its requirements for egg producers. United Egg Producers found that in 2024, 38.7% of all eggs were cage-free. 6.7% were organic! Compare that to 2010, when industry trade publication WATTPoultry found that only 2% of eggs purchased in stores were cage-free and only 1% were organic.
Times have been changing. Organic eggs, and the sustainable practices that produce them, are becoming the future. If you want to give them a try, FreshDirect has a half dozen brands you can choose between. For just a few extra dollars, you can be eating healthier, more humane eggs today.