In what they say is first report about the quality of commercial hen’s eggs from supermarkets in Argentina, first author, M.A. Soria and colleagues at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) in Entre Ríos evaluated some quality parameters of commercial hen’s eggs according to egg shell colour.

In the latest issue of International Journal of Poultry Science, they explain that they pruchased a total of 5,424 eggs from 113 supermarkets situated in 14 cities from the east-centre of the province od Entre Rios; 3,475 were white eggshell and 1,949 eggs were brown eggshell.

Egg Weight (EW), Eggshell Weight (ESW), Eggshell Thickness (EST), eggshell percentage (ES%) and Total Shell Surface Area (TSSA) were greater in brown eggs than in white eggs.

There was a significant positive correlation between EW and ESW and EW and TSSA but EW had negative correlations with ES%.

There were no significant differences in yolk (Y) and albumen (Al) pH between brown eggs and white eggs.

The range of Yolk Colour (YC) was 2-11 for white eggs and 2-14 for brown eggs. However, in general, eggs had similar YC in a package.

Soria and colleagues concluded from their results that, although eggs can belong to different hen breeding systems and ages, there were some differences in the quality parameters studied between white and brown eggs, which may account for the variations found.

^Reference

^{Soria M.A., D.J. Bueno and I.I.C. Bernigaud. 2013. Comparison of quality parameters in hen’s eggs according to egg shell color. International Journal of Poultry Science 12 (4): 224-234.}