5 Facts About Eggs, So You Can Be ‘That Guy’ at Parties

We eat them for breakfast and constantly put them in bases for desserts and dinners alike, but how much do we really know about eggs?

Here are a few facts to make you think a little harder about our unfeathered friends:

1. White and brown eggs are egg-zactly the same (sorry).

There’s no significant difference in the nutritional value of white and brown eggs. Their color has to do with the feather color of the hens that lay them (white for white, brown and red for brown). Though brown eggs are more expensive, that doesn’t mean they’re better for you; they simply need more food.

2. There are hens that lay blue eggs.

The Ameraucana chicken lays eggs in various shades of blue and lavender. It’s one of the ancestors of the Easter Egger chickens that produce eggs like their namesake holiday.

3. Whether or not you have to refrigerate eggs depends on where you live.

If you live in North America or Japan, you should probably refrigerate your eggs if you’re not going to eat them in a couple of weeks. In the US, we super-wash our eggs using intense machinery because we’re terrified of salmonella. This process destroys the protective cuticle surrounding them.

Other countries, in the European Union especially, maintain very clean farms, so the eggs are still naturally shielded from potential bacteria and viruses. European farmers also try to catch disease at the source by vaccinating their hens.The eggs are typically left on counters because condensation on a cool egg is a breeding ground for bacteria which can find their way into the eggs’ porous shells.

4. Eggland’s Best Eggs are kosher.

The largest kosher certification organization in the world, The Orthodox Union, annually ascertains whether certain foods are up to kosher code. Eggland’s Best consistently exceeds the kosher requirements of this organization and  is one of the few egg suppliers that can apply the label to each sub-brand.

5. Your store-bought egg will not hatch.

Eggs only become chicks if they were fertilized by a rooster. There’s a very small chance that some forbidden sexual healing happened in the hen-dense chicken coop, so crack your eggs without fear.