Not all chicken yolks look the same. Some are pale yellow, while others are orange, almost red.
But what does that mean? Are egg yolks like lettuce, with darker colors indicating higher nutritional value?
Fox News Digital spoke to egg experts to find out more about the case.
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Lisa Steele, a cookbook author and backyard poultry expert, told FOX News Digital that the color of a chicken's yolk “depends entirely on the chicken's diet.”
Steele, who lives in Maine, is the creator of Fresh Eggs Daily, a website about raising chickens. She is also the author of The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook.
Chicken egg yolks range in color from pale yellow to deep orange. (St. Petersburg)
“Foods high in xanthophylls and carotenes (basically pigments called carotenoids) will produce a nice, dark orange yolk,” she said.
Carotene is found in orange foods such as carrots, mangoes, cantaloupe and pumpkin, she said.
Xanthophylls are found in green vegetables such as spinach and kale.
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However, while dark egg yolk color does not mean the chicken is eating a nutritious organic or fresh diet, “foods containing pigments are also rich in other nutrients.” “So there's probably a correlation,” she says.
Still, feed companies and commercial poultry farms have found workarounds to produce dark egg yolks without these nutritious foods, Steele said.
According to experts, the color of the yolk depends entirely on the chicken's diet. Eating a diet high in carotene and xanthophylls will result in dark yolks. (St. Petersburg)
These companies “got smart and realized that consumers wanted to see bright orange yolks, so they started adding things like marigolds, bell peppers, sea kelp, and corn.” [and] “They use alfalfa to 'artificially' darken the yolk,” she said.
To ensure you're getting the most nutritious eggs possible, Steele recommends customers look for specific labels on cartons at the grocery store.
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Chickens raised “free range” or “free range” typically lay darker orange eggs, “because their diet consists primarily of grass, weeds and other plants,” Steele said. said.
She says it's important to note that “cage-free” and “pasture-raised” are not the same thing.
Experts say chickens with access to the outdoors typically have a more varied diet and have darker egg yolks. (St. Petersburg)
Steele told Fox News Digital that pasture-raised eggs are the “gold standard,” noting that some “cage-free” chickens may still live out their lives in warehouses.
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Eggs from pasture-raised chickens have a healthier, more diverse diet, so they're lower in cholesterol and higher in nutrients, Steele said.
It's not just the yolk that is different in color.
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The shells are also different.
Unlike the yolk, the color of the shell has nothing to do with the nutritional value of the egg, Steele says.
The color of an egg shell has nothing to do with the nutritional value of the egg. (Yulii Zozuria / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
The colors are “based purely on the breed of the chicken,” Steele said.
“Some chickens have brown dye, some have blue dye, and some have nothing.”
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And it's not the yolk.
