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I have traveled in Eastern Europe and I am annoyed to find out supermarkets seem offer only stale eggs (like white inside, no A -vitamin, tastes bad), they cost in the range of 7-12 cents per egg. My host offered me some eggs from local people, they were superb -- thick yellow, good smelling and tasted good.

  1. How can I know before buying that I am buying a quality egg?
  2. I like to eat eggs on the morning so I find the bad eggs very irritating, the are like paper -- not nutritious at all. For cooking, I am unsure whether they matter but I want to buy now only quality healthy eggs. How can I find such eggs?

I feel there is no point to save a few cents to buy rubbish, eggs are very cheap protein source although I paid a bit more for healthy quality eggs.

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    I don't doubt that you are finding much poorer-quality eggs at the supermarket than you'd get farm-fresh, but I seriously doubt that you can tell what the nutritional characteristics are just by tasting them. The two are not correlated, and usually the food distributors will have some minimum standard to meet in terms of food safety and nutrition. – Aaronut Jul 28 '11 at 14:44
  • You start by saying you have traveled in Eastern Europe, but not where you are now; US, Canada, Botswana? Do you live in an urban or rural area? If you are outside of sub-urban areas, the best answer may well be to get a few chickens. If you are not going for a commercial operation raising chickens is relatively easy and a great source of quality eggs. – Cos Callis Jul 28 '11 at 17:07
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    Poor feed chickens do not lay eggs, period! Get you own chicken and see how little it takes to stop them laying. If you have an egg at all it will be OK. Shell strength, content thickness, and colour do not really indicate nutritional profile, each chicken lays a different type of egg. I am sure some chickens lay better eggs than others, but it more to do with genetics than food – TFD Jul 28 '11 at 22:39
  • @TFD: what do you think about this article here and particularly "Eggs from pasture-raised chickens have 2/3 more vitamin A and 7 times the amount of beta-carotene than battery-raised eggs. They are also higher in B12, folic acid and vitamin E."? (no reference by the author so leaves doubts) – user2954 Dec 29 '11 at 22:44
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It's not a simple matter to spot a good egg just by looking at it. Different breeds of chicken will lay eggs that look a bit different from each other. Also, it used to be quite common for farmers to feed the chickens some colourings that make the egg yoke more yellow. So a strong colour inside doesn't mean it's good quality.

I'd suggest, if you think eggs are cheap enough for your to not worry about money, you look for free range organic labels on the egg box. If the egg is officially from an organic source then you know it's not from a chicken stuffed up with chemicals.

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  • +1 for free range and organic. Better for all parties involved! – Izzydorio Jul 28 '11 at 13:38
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    At least in the USA, the label "free range" (along with most other labels for eggs) is completely unregulated and thereby meaningless. So, the most important thing is really to know from where your eggs have come and to trust your purveyor. – ESultanik Jul 28 '11 at 13:46
  • "Free range" is regulated within the EU, so roughly half of Eastern Europe should have laws about it.But the exact implementation of the law is different between member countries, and may be laxer in countries where food quality isn't a pressing political problem. – rumtscho♦ Jul 28 '11 at 14:52

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