Eggs are a superfood!!
Canadian
Agriculture – we should be so very proud!
In Canada, the focus of the egg farms
for the past 40 years is to ensure... fresh, local, high-quality, high standards
of farming practices & food safety with high regard for animal welfare.
The eggs that you see in the
store are from local small family run farms over 300 hens. Canadians do NOT
want our table eggs to come from large facilities. Canadians want to support
the family farms and stay local. On average in Alberta, we have 8300 hens per
farm. (on average in US, they have 1 million hens per farm – Canadian Farming
is very different. That is not to say they don’t have smaller local farms, it’s
an average.) Did you know that 80% of our local farms are hutterites. If you
drive to pick up your eggs from the farm, that’s great, but if you are pressed
for time, you can go to your local store and get those same eggs. We have a few
new family farms opening each year to keep up with growing families eating
wonderful eggs. Eggs have amazing nutrition in them and are used in so many
ways in our cooking – that is why it is a superfood! With 14 nutrients in the
yolk, protein in the white... eggs are an amazing high quality, natural food
product! Used as a leavening agent in cakes, emulsifier in custards and
mayonnaise, binding agent in cookies and hamburger, coating agent in crispy
coated fish and chicken, thickening agent in soups, sauces, ice creams, or just
all on its own as sunny side up or in an omelette!
Eggs you see in Farmers Markets
can be from one of our local farmers or could be from a farm with under 300
hens. Those under 300 hen eggs are supervised by the Health Inspectors. If the
egg is NOT an “Inspected” egg it needs to say so. It cannot be in a used egg
carton to avoid contamination, food poisoning like salmonella or bacteria. If the carton is new and shows “Canada Grade
A” egg and it is not – it must have a label covering the grade A and say
“uninspected or ungraded eggs”. (some farms buy cartons) If you buy these eggs, please make sure you
wash the eggs to ensure the fecal material and bacteria on the shell will not
drop into your food when you are cracking your eggs for preparation of
cooking. Wash the eggs in 10 degrees warmer
water with a mild detergent. Don’t let your eggs sit in water, once the egg
equalizes temperature it will draw contaminates into the egg through the pores.
Store your eggs large end up so the air cell stays in place. Store your eggs in
the refrigerator to avoid bacteria to grow if there is a hairline crack or to
avoid the drop of the quality of the egg. Canada law is to buy eggs
refrigerated to avoid any food poisoning from a perishable food product. (some
people mark the eggs with a marker – to show dates or hard boiled etc. The
shell has 8000 pores and draws air (and marker) into the shell. If you must
label the eggs use a food coloring. Eggs are good for 2 weeks past the “sell
by” date on the carton if you buy the eggs from the store. After the “sell by”
date, it’s recommended you cook the eggs thoroughly, like scrambled or omelette
or baking.
It’s important and great to know that a Canada
Grade A egg from your local family run farm has statistics of 1 egg in 1
million eggs has a chance of having salmonella – amazing, super clean stats for
the industry! (other countries are 40 times more than that.) In Canada, we swab and test our farms with
random inspections 3 times a year for Salmonella and we do regular farm visits
and chicken counts on a regular basis to all of the farms in Canada.
Have you ever stood in front of
the egg case and wondered what the difference is between all the various types
of eggs? Did you know that some eggs are classified based on the formulation of
feed the hens eat, while other eggs are classified based on the housing system
the hens live in?
Egg laying hens are housed in a
variety of ways in Alberta. Every housing system is designed to provide a clean
environment, fresh food and water, and protection from predators. Additionally,
every indoor housing system provides consistent temperature, humidity and
lighting. All Canadian eggs are antibiotic and hormone free, and are produced
to the same world-class standards for food safety and quality, so be sure to
check for the Canadian Grade-A symbol!
White Eggs: from white hens that are typically raised in
conventional cages.
Brown Eggs: from brown hens that are typically raised in
conventional cages. (Conventional Cages in Canada are the largest in the world.
Moving forward, a lot of our small family run farms are shifting over to a
Furnished/Enriched System – with amazing space for the hens. I call this a
Chicken Coop System.)
Furnished / Enriched Eggs: from hens that are raised in furnished housing,
which provides more space (both floor space and height) and offer a variety of
enrichments (i.e. nesting boxes, perches and scratch pads) that allow the hens
to express more natural behaviours.
Free-Run Eggs: from hens that are raised in barns where they are
free to roam, which offer a variety
of enrichments (i.e. nesting
boxes and perches) that allow the hens to express more natural behaviours.
Free-Range Eggs: from hens that are raised in free-run housing,
which also provides access to outdoor runs (when weather permits).
Organic Eggs: from hens that are raised typically in free- run
or free-range housing and only provided feed that has been certified organic,
which means that it only contains ingredients that were grown without
pesticides, herbicides or commercial fertilizer.
Omega-3 Eggs: from hens that are provided feed that contains
extra flax (up to 10-20%), resulting in these eggs containing more Omega-3
fatty acids. This creates a darker yolk. (is this enough for your daily
requirement – no, so take fish oils daily or fresh ground flax over foods
daily, or eat fish 4 times a week or a combination of all of this with omega 3
eggs to top up the levels.)
Vitamin-Enhanced Eggs: from hens that are provided feed that was
nutritionally enhanced to include higher levels of certain vitamins (i.e.
Vitamin D or Vitamin E), resulting in these eggs containing more of the
particular vitamin(s). (if you already boost up your vitamins with supplementation
– excellent, this is an added bonus to ensure optimum health)
Vegetarian Eggs: from hens that are provided feed that contains
only plant-based ingredients.
Feed: some hens are feed, Wheat-
lighter yolk, Wheat, corn, grain mixture – little darker yolk, wheat, canola,
corn, barley mixture – even darker yolk. They can be feed alfalfa grass pellet
feed and also fish meal or soy bean meal. The birds need to have protein, as
they would eat mice, bugs, worms, spiders – even their own poop if unsupervised
or not cleaned up, so we keep the conditions amazingly clean to avoid this from
happening.
No matter what eggs you buy, they
are all amazing!! You are doing your body so good buy choosing eggs.
What ones you buy is totally up
to you. Do you have to spend $6.89 a dozen?
It costs a bit more for different
variety of egg types due to handling, specialty feed, type of hen, type of
feed, amount of feed, environment they live in, more advanced systems to ensure
the comfort of the hen, cleaning processes, etc. Prices of eggs do fluctuate
depending on the bushels of wheat prices that reflect onto the farmer. Those
prices transfer to what the grading station pays and what the store pays for
the eggs. After that, the stores can charge as low as they want as a lost
leader promotion to bring you into the store or as high as they want during a
time that they notice that this is what the customer will continually pay. At
the store level, the pricing is out of our hands. What do I buy? I buy jumbo
eggs all the time for approx. $2.75 or so at the store and this is what I eat.
(Great value for my dollar and amazing nutrition!) The choice is up to you.
No matter what eggs you buy, they
are all amazing!! You are doing your body so good buy choosing eggs.
A great blog to read is this one.
Mike the chicken vet – has so much more info on his blog that I have not had a
chance to read, however, it is great to read from a vet’s opinion.
I could go on for hours and I
have... if you would like more information as an Egg Farmer of Alberta
Educator, you can have me out to meeting, education events, or trade shows.
Contact me at ecastle@shaw.ca or
403-680-7200.
Beth Castle
Dietary
Technician/Author/Speaker
4 time
Award Winning Author
Health,
Fitness & Beauty
Psychology
& Mental Health
Women’s
Issues
Diet/Nutrition
Alberta Beef Educator
Egg Farmer of
Alberta Educator
