The Difference Between Cage Free And Free Range Eggs
NEWS
By MATTHEW LEE
If you’re interested in animal welfare and want to keep your diet cruelty-free or are simply concerned about your eggs’ quality, the labels on the cartons can be quite useful.
Labels like “organic,” “farm-fresh,” “free-range,” and “cage-free” inform shoppers about the conditions in which the hens were raised before their eggs were made available for sale.
Per an Annals of Animal Science study, free-range eggs taste the best, as hens are far less stressed when laying them. However, people often mix up free-range and cage-free eggs.
While free-range eggs come from hens that have some access to the outdoors, some farms might only offer minimal outdoor space to the hens and still meet free-range requirements.
For a more rigorous certification, select egg cartons with Certified Humane or American Humane seals, indicating that the hens were not subjected to crowded living conditions.
Having extra room allows chickens to exhibit more natural behaviors, like nesting, preening, and scratching, which ultimately make for happier hens and better-tasting eggs.
Conversely, cage-free hens can roam inside their barn — which is way better than cages — but not outside. Still, due to the lack of strict rules, many barns are left overcrowded.
In high-welfare cage-free farms with extra certifications from animal welfare groups, hens have enough room to walk, jump, play, stretch their wings, and lay eggs in nests.
Farms with such certifications give each hen at least 1½ square feet of space and provide lighting that simulates natural daylight, keeping the chickens’ internal clocks regulated.