03/08/2023
🥚Let’s talk eggs! Do you know the difference between ‘free range’ eggs and ‘pasture raised’ eggs?
📌Save this post for your next grocery shop!
🐓 The main difference is lower stocking densities and rotational grazing for ‘pasture raised’ hens. Meaning hens are raised in paddocks with more space to roam and do hen things outside making them more nutrient dense due to a more varied diet. You can definitely taste the difference!
🥚Both are ‘free range’ but if the egg ain’t ‘pasture raised’, ‘free range’ can mean a lot of things these days, but usually it means by Australian law that hens have to have “meaningful and regular access” to the outdoors for at least 8 hours (except during adverse weather conditions or serious disease outbreaks). By law, also stocking density cannot be more than 1 hen per square meter or 10,000 hens per hectare - not considered true ‘free range’.
🐓The CSIRO Model Code of Practice, states “there should be a maximum of 1500 hens per hectare on an outdoor range, which gives each hen a minimum of 6.6 square metres”.
🥚Sadly, there are many eggs labels claiming to be ‘free range’ but Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) does not regulate this. Also different companies have different standards so some ‘free range’ eggs are definitely superior.
🥚The best eggs you can get are those straight from your own hens, a farm or local market, but if in doubt google the company online to check their standards first before purchasing.
🥇Overall pasture raised eggs = happier hens and more wholesome eggs, so I would 💯 recommend pasture raised eggs if you can get them.
➡️ Swipe through to the end to see a list of the best and the worst ‘free range’ and/or ‘pasture raised’ eggs at both Woolworths and Coles. (Source: https://www.choice.com.au)
What’s your favourite egg 🥚?
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