Looking for some amazing egg facts and egg nutrition facts? You are at the right place! This long list of 90 facts is going to help you learn a lot. Some of these facts are serious and surprising while others are quite interesting and funny (at times).
So, without wasting time any further, let us take a look at 90 awesome egg and egg nutrition facts that might come in handy for your school project!
Let’s begin…
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 1-10
1. Eggs have the highest quality protein that you can buy!
2. Sometimes we get confused about whether the egg is hard-boiled or not. To test whether the egg is hard-boiled or not, just spin it. If it spins easily, it is hard-boiled, if it wobbles, it is still raw!
3. The yolk of an egg is one of the very few natural sources of food for vitamin D. The other natural sources of vitamin D are sardines, milk, salmon, and cod liver oil.
4. To get most of the vitamin D out of eggs, you can either boil them or fry them (you get around 82 to 88% of the vitamin D). Baking the eggs destroys almost half of the vitamin D (you get around 39 to 45% of the vitamin D).
5. As hen ages, it produces bigger eggs.
6. A hen takes approximately 24 to 26 hours to produce an egg.
7. Howard Helmer is called the Omelet King. He is the fastest omelet maker in the world.
8. He made 427 two-egg omelets in a mere 30 minutes. Not just that, he holds three Guinness World Records in the field of omelet making.
9. If you drop an egg by mistake, just dump some salt on it for easy cleaning.
10. The color of the yolk can tell a lot about the diet of the hen.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 11-20
11. In one year, a hen lays around 300 to 325 eggs!
12. A large egg consists of 70 calories and just 5 grams of fat.
13. An egg is just second to human milk! It contains all the 9 essential amino acids (proteins) required by the human body for the proper development of the body.
14. Brown eggs are costlier than white eggs but this increase in price is not because brown eggs are healthier or nutritious than white eggs.
15. Brown eggs are produced by bigger/larger breeds of hens than the ones that produce white eggs. The larger breeds need and eat more feed; hence the farmers spend more on them. Therefore, to buy these brown eggs, even we spend more!
16. The eggshells contain a bacterium, Salmonella because the eggs are laid through the same passage that excretes fecal matter.
17. To reduce the risk of this bacterium, USDA recommends eggs to be washed and sanitized when they are at a processing plant.
18. This may seem to solve one problem but it raises another problem! With the washing and sanitizing, a natural lining on the eggshell gets removed and the eggs can get an infection called ‘bloom’.
19. To avoid this, the eggs that are washed and sanitized need to be compulsorily refrigerated. Hence, American eggs need to be refrigerated at any cost.
20. If the eggs are not washed or sanitized, there is no need for refrigeration. You can simply keep them at room temperature.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 21-30
21. Sometimes you can see some white strings attached to the yolk when you break an egg. They are called chalazae.
22. They attach the yolk of the egg to the eggshell. They are completely edible. The more prominent the chalazae are, the fresher the egg is!
23. A few decades earlier, people and public health officials believed that the cholesterol present in the egg yolk increases the blood cholesterol level which can potentially increase the risk of stroke and heart attacks.
24. However, clinical studies have proved the opposite. It not only has nearly a negligible effect on blood cholesterol but also helps in reducing our blood cholesterol!
25. Egg yolk and egg white have the same amount of protein – 3 grams of protein each! The difference lies in the amount of cholesterol. Egg whites have 3 grams of protein and 15 calories whereas the egg yolk has 60 calories and 3 grams of protein.
26. The eggs that are sold with a claim that they are omega-3-enriched is not true! As per the claim, the omega-3 enriched eggs are claimed to come from hens that are fed flax seeds or even fish oil.
27. There is no evidence to back the claim. Even USDA doesn’t come forward to support this. This (so far) looks more of a marketing strategy.
28. So, instead of wasting your precious money on these eggs, go for chia seeds, organic eggs, wild fatty fish, etc. which are the natural sources of omega-3.
29. There are three egg grades as per USDA. These grades are Grade AA, Grade A, and Grade B.
30. Grade AA eggs are of the highest quality and are the freshest. The egg whites are firm and clear. These eggs are best for poaching.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 31-40
31. Grade A eggs are of very high quality. The egg whites’ firm but not that firm as Grade AA eggs.
32. Grade B eggs rarely appear in stores. Grade B (low quality) eggs have thin whites, have flat yolks, and may even have blood spots.
33. These eggs are used in powdered egg products, baking, and breaking stock.
34. The shells of eggs are porous and hence, as they age, more air gets inside the egg increasing the air pocket present in the egg.
35. You can test the age of eggs by a simple test. Take a glass of water and put the egg in the glass. If the egg floats, it is old and may not be healthy and if the egg sinks, the egg is fresh.
36. All the eggs, be it white, brown, black, etc. start their journey being white in the beginning.
37. Even if you buy a large egg crate, you will certainly find some smaller eggs in the crate. It is because USDA laid down guidelines for the weight of eggs per dozen.
38. Hence you will find some small eggs in your large egg crate or some large eggs in your small egg crate.
39. You may not believe but the earlobes of chickens can tell the color of the eggs. Chickens with white earlobes produce white eggs and the chickens with red or brown earlobes produce brown eggs.
40. The eggshells may vary in color but this doesn’t make any kind of difference! The difference in the eggshell is because of genetics.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 41-50
41. The egg yolk’s color can tell you a lot about the hen’s diet. The chickens that were fed more pigmented food like from grass to insects, produced eggs with rich-colored yolks.
42. The chickens that ate conventional food grains produced eggs with pale-colored egg yolks.
43. An executive chef of Blue Hill restaurants, Dan Barber collaborated with Cornell University researchers to develop a feed that included red peppers for the hens. The result – hens produced eggs that had strawberry-colored yolks.
44. In terms of nutrition, the rich-colored yolk has more antioxidants like beta-carotene and lutein as per the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture.
45. Other studies have also proved that richer yolks have higher amounts of omega-3 and have lesser cholesterol.
46. Younger chickens produce eggs with thicker shells and the older chickens produce eggs with thinner shells. This characteristic is universal for all the breeds of hens and the color of the egg.
47. The reason for the blue eggshells is that around 500 years ago, a species of South American hens were infected with a virus.
48. This virus caused a genetic mutation in the hens. This caused the accumulation of biliverdin pigment that changed the color of eggshells from white to blue!
49. Some of the egg crates have a ‘hormone-free’ tag written on them. The tag is nothing special because whether anyone says or not, every egg produced is hormone-free as FDA banned hormone usage in the production of poultry products back in the 1950s.
50. According to the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association, it is completely safe to eat eggs.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 51-60
51. Dieters who had an egg breakfast lost 65% more weight than the ones who had something like a bagel diet.
52. There is no specific recommendation on how many eggs a person must eat in a day or a week or a month. However, it is clear now that it is necessary to include eggs in your diet (unless you are a vegan or allergic to eggs).
53. Contrary to our belief, cloudy egg whites are fresher and clear egg whites are older.
54. The cloudiness of the egg white is because of the presence of carbon dioxide that didn’t get enough time to escape the egg through the eggshell.
55. Older boiled eggs can be peeled easily than the young and fresh ones.
56. If you think that raw eggs are more nutritious (in terms of absorbing the nutrients) than the cooked ones, you are wrong! 51% of the raw eggs are digestible whereas 91% of the cooked eggs are digestible.
57. Iowa produces over 14.8 billion eggs a year – the most in the US! The next top state is Ohio. It produces 7.9 billion eggs annually.
58. The egg-laying depends on the breed of the hens. Some lay eggs every day and others lay every alternate day or just once or twice a week.
59. The breeds that lay most of the eggs are White Leghorns, Barred Plymouth Rocks, and Rhode Island Reds.
60. Chicken eggs are more popular than the eggs of turkey or duck. It is because chickens take less space, lay more eggs, and don’t have strong maternal instincts as turkeys or ducks.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 61-70
61. After laying an egg, the hens start egg development within 30 minutes of laying the egg.
62. A hen called Harriet laid 9.1 inches-big egg in the year 2010. This egg is the largest egg of any chicken. The hen was from the UK.
63. The eggs that you eat are laid by the hens that didn’t mate.
64. You can cook eggs in several ways. You can go for boiling, frying, poaching, grilling, etc. Imagination is indeed the limit when it comes to cooking eggs.
65. An American eats 250 eggs a year on average. In this case, the US consumes nearly 76.5 billion eggs.
66. The shelf life of eggs is 3 to 4 weeks.
67. Chickens can lay an egg inside an egg. However, it is extremely rare.
68. When compared to the body size and the size of an egg, the kiwi bird lays the largest egg in the bird family.
69. Araucana chicken can lay natural green, pink, blue, and brown eggs. Hence it is called ‘Easter Egg Chicken’.
70. A hen turns the egg some 50 times a day so that the egg yolk doesn’t stick to one side.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 71-80
71. A chicken that passed as a rooster in Switzerland’s Basel was sentenced to be burnt as it committed a crime of laying an egg! This incredible incident took place in 1474.
72. The fear of contamination of salmonella may be high but the likelihood is low. Only one egg out of 20,000 eggs contains salmonella.
73. You can peel a boiled egg by blowing it out of the shell.
74. In general, eggs take 72 hours (after laying) to reach the grocery stores.
75. Most of the species of swans have homosexuals (especially the black swans). They (usually two males) use female swan to lay eggs and then shoo her away. After shooing the female away, they take care of the eggs jointly.
76. The ostrich egg globe is made from a real ostrich egg.
77. American Egg Board promotes the marketing of eggs. Its slogan is ‘The Incredible, Edible Egg’.
78. Eggs are rich in choline which helps in increasing cell activity, nutrient transportation, and liver function.
79. British eggs are illegal in the United States of America because they are not washed and US eggs are illegal in the British because they are washed!
80. Eggs are gluten-free and are the cheapest source of protein.
Egg Facts and Egg Nutrition Facts: 81-90
81. As we mentioned earlier, the brighter color of the yolk is dependent on the feed of the hen. Farmers use marigold flower petals to make the yolks brighter.
82. Eggs contain zero carbs and zero sugar. What else do you need to include in your diet?
83. The eggshell makes up around 9 to 12% of the total weight of an egg. It is made up of Calcium carbonate.
84. An egg white consists of albumen (a protein), vitamin B3, vitamin B2, magnesium, chlorine, sodium, sulfur, and potassium.
85. Pink egg whites indicate that the eggs are spoiling.
86. Eggs’ temperature when laid is around 105°F. When they cool down, the egg white contracts, and an air cell or air pocket develops inside the egg.
87. According to the Egg Safety Center, the blood that you may see after breaking the egg doesn’t specify that the egg is spoilt. The blood comes because of the rupture of the blood vessels in the yolk.
88. England prefers brown eggs and the US prefers white eggs.
89. It is an age-old puzzle – which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Now, Canadian researchers have found the answer. Eggs came earlier as dinosaurs were making nests similar to birds and started laying eggs similar to birds long before birds started laying. The research is published in the journal, Paleontology in the year 2008.
90. The US alone produces 75 billion eggs a year. It is 10% of the total production of eggs in the world. Out of these 75 billion eggs, 60% are used for consumption, and 9% by the food service industry. The rest percentage is used to make food products like mayonnaise, cake mix, marshmallows, etc. China is the largest producer of eggs – they produce 390 billion eggs a year nearly half of the total world’s production.
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