Acceptance of brown-shelled eggs in a white-shelled egg market

Abstract

Brown eggs have gradually entered the traditional white-egg markets as a distinctive mode for packaging specialty eggs. A test was conducted at the Brigham Young University Sensory Laboratory (Provo, UT) to understand how consumers view attributes of the brown egg relative to the white egg. The objectives were to see how the consumer viewed properties of eggs by color and to examine the preference for brown color intensity. The 52 panelists were all women who routinely purchased and consumed eggs. Some women (53.8%) consumed eggs twice weekly, and 40.4% purchased them at least every 2 wk. Purchases included specialty eggs (14.6%) consisting of cage-free (50.0%), organic (28.6%), and n-3 enhanced (21.4%) eggs. The panelists preferred white eggs (90.4%). Though brown-shelled eggs did not exceed white eggs in preference, they were perceived positively (white-shelled %:brown-shelled %) as being more nutritious (65:29), having more flavor (27:14) and n-3 content (62:39), having a farm-flock origin (46:44), and being from organically fed hens (56:31) To test the preference for shade of brown eggs, a set of 6 eggs with varying intensities of brown color was evaluated for accepted appearance using a 9-point hedonic scale. The egg color intensities were measured using a Hunter Colorflex spectrophotometer (Hunter Associates Laboratory, Reston, VA) and the CIE system. The lightness (L*) values ranged from 83.2 for the white egg to 63.6 to 46.5 for the brown eggs. A significant (P < 0.05) preference was found for the 2 lighter shades of brown-shelled eggs (L* 63.6 and 57.5). Using the 9-point scale, panelists then compared brown eggs side by side with white eggs. Again, the 2 most light-tinted brown eggs were found most comparable with the white egg in acceptability and better (P < 0.05) than the darker brown eggs. In conclusion, white eggs were preferred over brown eggs; however, brown eggs gained in acceptance but did not exceed white as likely to be more nutritious or flavorful, fresher, organic, and of cage-free origin. Varying color shades in cartoned eggs was equally as acceptable as uniform colored eggs. Panelists preferred the appearance of the light-tinted brown eggs to that of darker brown eggs.

Performance of commercial laying hen genotypes on free range and organic farms in Switzerland, France and The Netherlands

“…White hens are rather scarce in organic and free range systems, although less so in Switzerland than in The Netherlands. This might be due to the preference for brown eggs in the North-western part of Europe (Arthur and O'Sullivan, 2005), the main market for The Netherlands and/or the association among consumers between brown egg shells and free range systems and/or healthier eggs (Johnston et al, 2011). Silver hens were introduced some years ago as more suitable genotypes for non-cage housing systems, as they were expected to combine the advantages of the good feathering of a white hen with the desired brown egg shells.…”

iTRAQ-Based Quantitative Proteomics Identifies Potential Regulatory Proteins Involved in Chicken Eggshell Brownness

“…However, consumers still regard eggshell color as an important indicator of egg quality. Market tests suggest that consumers positively perceive brown eggs as being more nutritious and flavorful, and that hens laying brown eggs are thought to be organically fed [2]. Consumers who prefer brown eggs also pay attention to the intensity of eggshell brownness, and exhibit a preference for uniformity in eggshell brownness [3].…”

Differences between spent hens of different genotype in performance, meat yield and suitability of the meat for sausage production

“…Consistently, the demand for brown-shelled eggs is growing even in traditional white-shelled egg markets (Johnston et al, 2011). Although the main purpose of keeping laying hens is egg production, meat as a by-product of the egg industry has attracted interest as well.…”