How to distinguish a homemade egg from a factory one. Sale of chicken eggs as a business on domestic laying hens

Residents of rural areas run a household, keep chickens and other animals that provide them with animal products. For them, there is no dilemma: buy eggs or use a natural product produced by their own birds.

The difference between store-bought and homemade eggs is their chemical composition. Free-range chickens are actively moving, eating selected wheat and nibbling grass in the yard. Their girlfriends, who are on state support, stand in cramped pens all day and build muscle mass.

Here's a colorful salmon analogy. It is said that fish bred in special hatcheries have fins that atrophy because there is no need to swim. Salmon, which overcome the violent river current, have developed muscles, constantly realize the hunting instinct. Their diet does not contain antibiotics and other chemicals. What kind of fish would a buyer be more willing to pay for? The answer is obvious.

The difficulty is that modern consumers are forced to choose. Which product is better - eggs bought from nice and friendly residents of the private sector, or those with a "loud" blue seal and available in any supermarket? To make a choice, you need to define a meaningful criterion.

Freshness.

Undoubtedly, when a food product loses its quality characteristics, changes color, smell, texture, we are no longer talking about home or factory origin. You should buy eggs in trusted places of trade, that is, where the goods are taken apart in an instant, and it does not have time to stale and deteriorate. If you are lucky enough to find a conscientious hostess from the village, it is better to make a reservation and take a certain amount of eggs, which are traditionally counted in dozens. She does not want to lose a regular customer, so she will not allow a decrease in product quality.

On the other hand, in the supermarket where the responsible manager works, egg storage conditions are optimal, and a sheet with information about the shelf life is placed in each tray. Moreover, the store always has a document confirming the quality of the product, and it should be available to anyone who wants to get acquainted with its contents.

Yolk and shell color.

Poultry farms are cunning and add dye to the diet of their pets to give the yolk a characteristic “village” color: yellow with an orange slant, saturated, as if talking about the impeccable quality of the product. Egg shells are known to be colored in a wide range of shades - from snow-white to dark brown, with slight transitions to beige and coffee with milk. It depends on the color of the chicken. In culinary matters, there is a distinction: which eggs are best used for cooking ready meals, and which are more suitable for adding to the dough. The choice of eggs by shell is a matter of taste, and the color of the yolk can only be checked during cooking, and this is unrealistic to do at the point of sale.

Price.

The price of eggs fluctuates throughout the year. It has to do with supply and demand. Laying hens are more active in the warm season, and the main need for eggs occurs in winter and spring - in connection with the onset of famous holidays. The figure on the price tag is the result of the work of ministries and departments that determine the cost of the product and set a markup limit that sellers can afford. Domestic eggs are traditionally more expensive, as they are "in the halo" of naturalness. The fashion for everything homemade, as well as a slight distrust of modern mass retail chains, are the reasons why people switch to the consumption of eggs produced in mini-farms and private farms.

Chemical composition.

It is impossible to determine it by sight and even by taste. This is the task of laboratories in which they calculate what proportion of useful substances, chemical additives, antibiotics, dyes, vitamins are contained in the product. Chicken diet is the most important factor in egg quality. Domestic birds are fed with selected wheat. They can move freely around the yard and look for what they need in the soil: insects, grass, small pebbles for grinding grains. Often, the owners do not have a specific goal to grow a superlayer or a fleshy Ryaba. When a bird lays eggs, behaves actively, has a healthy appearance, the owner rejoices. Factory chickens are forced to eat what they are given. The menu may include dyes, and additives to accelerate growth, and antibiotics.

Eggs, homemade or store-bought, are an indispensable product, without which it is difficult to imagine breakfast, pastries, and a festive table. Eating right means eating high-quality, beautifully designed, mouth-watering, healthy meals. Mindfulness and basic knowledge will help you choose the best ingredients and avoid food poisoning.

Many housewives are concerned about what natural (village) chicken eggs should be like, how they differ from store-bought ones, and whether they have any special benefits. This is the question that will be raised in this article.

It should be noted that anyone who breeds chickens on their own can easily determine where the natural egg is and where the factory one is. A city dweller will have to take note of a few nuances that you need to remember when buying.

Important nuance

Village eggs are not sold in stores. This is due to the fact that retail chains prefer to work with large manufacturers who can offer a huge amount of goods at any time of the year. Village chickens are able to rush well only in the warm season. In winter, to get the usual number of eggs, you will have to feed the birds with special food. This will affect the quality of the product.

What is the difference from stores?

What is the difference between country eggs and store eggs? First of all, all the eggs in the tray will be different. This is due to the fact that chickens, living in an aviary, carry the product where they want. No one keeps them in a cage and does not give special food so that the eggs are approximately the same. Often the eggs are soiled in litter, they may have a chip from a pebble. Some hens carry a white product, some a brown one. As for the size, young birds will be carried by adults - a size more familiar to the buyer.

Village eggs are almost always fertilized, this is due to the fact that everyone in the household has a rooster. Don't be afraid to eat them. Such eggs have more nutrients and do not adversely affect human health. The store product is not fruitful. In production, such eggs are eliminated.

Natural eggs will not have a stamp. When buying, you should not focus on the color of the yolk. In factory conditions, they have long learned to tint its shade with the help of special food. In natural eggs, the yolk is often darker, but not always. This figure depends on the time of year when it was demolished.

The shell is rough to the touch, unlike the store product. The latter is smooth. The smell is also different. In rustic eggs, it is saturated. The taste, of course, is also different, homemade eggs are better in this regard.

Egg shelf life

It is also important how long the product can be stored. The shelf life of village eggs is about a month when raw, if stored in the refrigerator. Hard-boiled - up to two weeks, soft-boiled - up to 2 days. Cracked boiled can be stored for 4 days, peeled - 3 days. Broken raw - no more than 2 days. If Easter eggs, then it all depends on how they were processed. If a natural dye is used, for example, onion peel or beets, then they can be stored for up to 15 days. When processed with any chemicals - no more than 2 days. If a thermal film is pasted, then the product must be eaten within 4 days.

Benefit

In fact, there are many rumors about the benefits of village eggs. They have a lot of useful substances, restore the immune system, which deteriorates under the influence of environmental factors.

Let's take a look at the benefits of natural product. If you eat it regularly, you can prevent the development of eye problems. In particular, we are talking about sclerotic processes. An example of such a disease is a cataract. Those people who constantly eat village eggs have an excellent condition of capillaries and optic nerves.

The shell of a natural product is also useful. It contains calcium, potassium and other substances that have a positive effect on human health. Experts advise not to throw away the shell, but to crush it and use it. If you mix the crumbs with lemon juice, then such a mixture will restore in the body required amount minerals.

The beneficial properties of natural eggs are explained by the fact that birds are fed only with high-quality feed to the full. Their food is balanced, the birds are kept in clean and comfortable conditions. There is no such thing in the factory, since the main task in production is to use less funds and get more product. Domestic chickens are cared for and eggs are collected daily.

How to choose eggs?

In order to get all the nutrients from eggs, you need to constantly use them, while buying only natural ones. When choosing, it is recommended to pay attention to the size. The smaller it is, the more useful the egg will be. This is due to the fact that young hens that lay small eggs do not have any diseases. To make sure that the bird was healthy when the egg was laid, you need to pay attention to its appearance. If the spout of the egg is sharp, and it weighs no more than 55 g and no less than 50 g, then the chicken was young and not sick.

conclusions

The article describes how homemade eggs differ from factory ones. It is important when buying to take into account all the nuances in order to know exactly which product is being purchased. There is nothing wrong with eating store-bought eggs, they do not harm the body. However, they have few nutrients and a weak taste.

It is necessary to reiterate briefly the special points that have already been mentioned above.

natural eggs:

• fragrant and tasty;
• in a large tray, everything will have a different color, shape, size, some may be damaged or dirty;
• cost more than factory
• harder to buy
• rough to the touch.

When buying, you must definitely know the seller, otherwise there is no guarantee that he did not purchase the store's eggs. It should be borne in mind that a chicken can lay no more than 25-30 eggs per month. Therefore, if a farmer has only 10 layers, and he constantly offers a huge amount of product, then you need to think: does he buy it in the store?

The benefits of eggs for the human body have been proven by scientists more than once. Indeed, since ancient times, when people began to breed birds, eggs began to appear in the human diet almost every day. That is why now, the composition of almost any complex dish includes eggs. After all, they contain vitamins A, D, E, as well as minerals and amino acids.

But the food market is crowded these days. A person does not have problems buying products, but it is sometimes very difficult to purchase a quality product. And therefore, many people are interested in the answer to the question: “Which eggs are better to buy factory or homemade?”

Common myths

• The yolk of a quality egg has a rich orange color.. This is wrong. The yolks of fertilized chicken eggs have an orange color. A hen's egg is an egg that a hen lays whether or not there is a rooster in the coop. But if there is no rooster, then accordingly the egg will not be fertilized. And the yolk will have a light shade. If the chicken egg was fertilized, then it already carries 100% of the set of chromosomes and a chicken may appear from this egg. Such an egg contains not only half of the mother's nutrients, but also half of the father's nutrients. This fact is quite well known, so it is actively used in poultry farms. A dye is added to the chicken diet, which will subsequently stain the yolk. This scam is very common but easy to check. To do this, you need to boil an egg and see if there is a white dot in the yolk - the future chicken. If it is, then the egg is really fertilized, and carries the maximum benefit.
• Brown eggs are healthier than white ones. This is also not true. The color of the shell depends on the color of the hen. If the chicken is light, then her eggs will be light, and accordingly, the darker the color of the chicken, the darker the color of the shell will be.
• Large eggs are healthier than small ones. The size of the egg does not affect its quality in any way. Large eggs are carried by adult hens, and small ones by young ones.
• Village eggs are eco-friendly. This is a very common misconception. When a person buys eggs in the market from unfamiliar farmers, he does not know in which area the farm is located. And in what conditions do chickens live there. There will be environmentally friendly eggs only if the village is far from the city, and cars pass there very rarely. But if the chicken coop is located near the road, then all the exhaust gases from passing cars settle on the grass that the chickens peck. In this case, it is difficult to talk about environmental friendliness.

What is the difference between factory eggs and homemade eggs?

• Size. At the poultry farm, all chickens live in different cages. They are divided according to age. Therefore, it is very easy to collect one-size eggs in one tray and deliver them to the store. On the farm, hens of all ages live in the same coop. Therefore, it will be possible to assemble a monotonous tray only if the farm is large. But even in this case, complete uniformity is difficult to achieve. There will still be differences, albeit minor ones.
• form. All eggs that deviate from the “ideal” are considered defective at the factory and are disposed of. This rarely happens on the farm, so buying them from farmers you can find elongated oval or round specimens.
• shell. The shell of factory eggs is smooth. But the shell of village eggs is often rough and chipped.
• shell color. At the poultry farm, most often chickens of the same color live in the same cage. That is why the shell color of all eggs will be the same. But in one farming under the roof of the chicken coop, chickens of various stripes are collected. And accordingly, the shade of the shell of each egg is different.
• Appearance. In poultry farms, chickens live in sterile conditions. That is why litter rarely comes into contact with eggs. And dirt can't get on them at all. But in farming, such conditions cannot be achieved. A chicken is by nature an unscrupulous creature. Therefore, buying farm product, you can often find pieces of adhering grass, dirt or droppings on the eggs.
• Uniform yolk color. Tinting chicken feed is very often practiced in factories. Therefore, the yolks of eggs of factory chickens will have a rich orange color. But often the chicken body does not digest artificial dyes very well. Which is easy to find. The yolks will not have a uniform color. This is never the case with country chickens.
• smell. Chickens are practically omnivores. And the owners of poultry farms take advantage of this by adding not only grain, but also cheap fish to the chicken diet. Therefore, the eggs of chickens that are on such a “diet” often have a fishy smell and taste. The diet of village chickens includes mostly only plant foods. Therefore, their eggs have a neutral smell.
• at the cost. Naturally, a quality product always costs more, as a result of which, the price of factory-made eggs is several times lower than village counterparts.

What kind of eggs should you buy?

Definitely need to give preference to village eggs. But in this case, it is best to get to know the farmer and always buy eggs only from him. If possible, you need to find out if this farmer sells surplus of his products or if he has a business.

Both home and shop eggs- It is a natural product. They differ only in the diet and conditions of keeping their producers - chickens. But the question of choosing a quality product is always relevant.

Chicken eggs have been part of the human diet for centuries. This valuable product is rich in amino acids necessary for the body, contains vitamins D, A, E, B, choline, biotin, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, phosphorus and many other useful substances. Eggs are absorbed by the human body almost completely. They have a limited shelf life, which depends on the conditions under which they are stored. It is very important to choose fresh eggs when buying.

Of course, homemade eggs and store-bought eggs differ in their taste. The diet of a country hen is very different from that of caged hens fed special diets geared towards a specific goal: gaining weight or producing eggs.

Eggs from poultry farms are sold in the store, their prices are usually lower than those of domestic ones. When buying on the market, it is important to be able to correctly determine what they offer to buy.

How to determine if an egg is homemade or store-bought?

The color of the yolk does not always tell which egg, domestic or from a poultry farm, it depends on the diet of the chicken. Rich yellow-orange yolks are found in country chickens fed on grains, grass and worms, and poultry farm birds fed specially formulated color supplemented feeds.

The color of the shell cannot be a selection criterion either, just white eggs are found in white laying hens, and brown in birds with a darker color. Although there are options here too.

The best way out of the situation is to find a conscientious hostess who you can trust and buy eggs only from her. Define by appearance, homemade or store-bought eggs, you can with some experience. Looking at all the offered eggs together, you can see that homemade ones differ from each other in the shade of the shell: there are brownish, creamy, slightly coffee. In the store, everyone is the same - either white or brownish.

But even here you can make a mistake - unscrupulous sellers add cheaper ones from the poultry farm to their product, and they select different colors from different batches.

It is useful to pay attention to the size. The housewives have birds in the chicken coop different ages, juveniles lay smaller eggs. The shape is also different: in some layers they are elongated, in others they are almost round. At poultry farms in one poultry house, hens of the same age, eggs before being sent to trading network calibrate: special machines sort by size. Products in trays are almost the same in color and size.

On the eggs in the store you can see the markings, various letters. So, in particular, according to the shelf life, eggs are divided into dietary ones, they are denoted by the letter "D" and canteens, which are marked with the letter "C". Diet food should be stored no more than seven days before the day of sale, and canteens - no more than 25 days. But if they are not sold within one week in the store, then it is highly doubtful that someone will relabel them. Most likely, they will just be sold later. In order not to buy an expired product, you need to know the criteria for choosing fresh chicken eggs.

Are homemade eggs always healthier than store-bought ones?

Chemical analysis shows that eggs from a poultry farm, like homemade ones, are rich in proteins, amino acids, vitamins and other useful substances.

Of course, in poultry farms, chickens are in cages, not on free range, but, on the other hand, they receive a balanced diet, they are kept under strict hygiene conditions, vaccinated against salmonellosis and other diseases dangerous to humans.

No one is protected from diseases carried by birds, but it is easier to control this at a special enterprise, and not at an unfamiliar grandmother in the yard.

Chickens receive special additives that stimulate growth and productivity, antibiotics that protect against diseases. The diet and composition of supplements is kept in strict confidence. Therefore, many people have questions caused by distrust of manufacturers.

In any case, the choice is up to the buyer.