Many people believe that a darker, richer yellow yolk signals a better-tasting egg, while a pale-colored yolk means the egg will taste more bland. Is this true? Does the color of the egg’s yolk have anything to do with the flavor? Why are yolks different colors? And how does diet affect the taste of eggs?
I grew up with a grandmother who had a small chicken farm. She sold eggs for a living. At any one time, she had 300 to 400 chickens laying eggs, but she also sold chickens for meat, so these would diminish until she re-stocked or hatched baby chickens in an incubator. When she supplemented the hen’s diet with corn, the egg yolks were deeper yellow, and the eggs, we were all convinced, tasted better. It’s hard to let go of such sensory memories and still, to this day, anytime I get an egg with a pale yellow yolk, I find it bland-tasting. Am I right? Or am I imagining it?
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First, the prevailing answer to this question is an incomplete “factoid” that simplifies an answer that is just a bit more involved. It goes like this:
An egg yolk gets its color mostly from carotenoids, a group of yellow, orange, or red fat-soluble pigments. Animals, unlike plants, do not produce carotenoids but get them from their diet. The more foods rich in carotenoids a hen eats, the darker her egg yolks will be. But, since carotenoids have no discernible taste, this cannot influence the flavor of the eggs. So, eggs with deep yellow yolks due to carotenoids don’t really taste any different. We only think they taste better. It’s all in our heads!
It is true that egg farmers can supplement their hens’ diet with carotenoid-rich foods to produce a deeper yellow yolk. They can use marigolds, orange peels, chili flakes, or even synthetic pigments. But, the explanation I’ve paraphrased above makes it seem like the only thing a food contains are carotenoids, and therefore nothing a chicken eats can influence the flavor of the eggs she lays. That is the question we need to ask before we can determine whether yolk color matters.
First, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably purchased eggs. If that is so, I have to assume you have eaten eggs. Therefore, you know that some eggs taste better than others. You may even have a certain brand of eggs that you always buy because you like their taste best. An egg is an egg but not all eggs taste the same. So, something must influence the taste of a chicken’s eggs. So, what factors are left?
Factors Influence Egg Flavor
I suppose it’s possible that the lifestyle of a chicken could have some effect on egg flavor. It certainly has an effect on laying. Stressed hens may stop laying eggs altogether. And, a stressed chicken may be less able to assimilate nutrients leading to lower quality eggs, weak shells, etc. But would the taste be affected? Well, if the chicken’s ability to assimilate the food she eats affects the taste of eggs, then that is paramount to admitting that diet affects the taste of eggs. So, we’re back where we started.
Strong Flavored Foods
If you are not sure whether the food a hen eats influences the taste of the eggs, then all you have to do is feed hens foods with very strong and noticeable flavors. This will determine whether the flavors from a chicken’s diet get into the eggs. And, they do, to some extent. If you feed a hen lots of garlic, fish oil, or even fruits or vegetables with very strong flavors, the resulting eggs will have a strange off-taste.
Fish oil can give eggs a fishy odor and taste, in fact, and, failing that, can produce off-flavors and, as one study said, lower scores of “aroma, taste, flavor, and acceptability.” 1 You would have to feed them large and quite excessive amounts of these foods, however, to notice an appreciable difference.
It stands to reason then, that diet influences egg taste and some eggs may have a richer taste while others will have a blander taste due to the food fed to the hens.
Hens fed typical commercial diets (without supplemented carotenoids) tend to lay eggs with pale yellow yolks while hens that are allowed to free forage lay eggs with deeper yellow yolks.
Freshness of Eggs
If you’ve ever bought fresh eggs from a farmer, you may be convinced that they taste much better than grocery store eggs! Some folks may tell you that it is because they are fresher. However, there is no evidence that the freshness of an egg (that is otherwise edible) influences its taste a great deal. Likewise, there is no evidence that any one food or diet at all can make a chicken’s eggs taste better.
We know that certain flavors can get into eggs and make them taste worse, though. We also know that some eggs taste better unless we want to believe it’s all in our heads. We know that, beyond stuffing hens with strong-tasting foods like garlic, no single food is likely to greatly influence the taste of the eggs. But, if a chicken does not eat large amounts of garlic, she does eat large amounts of other foodstuffs. This must have some effect on the flavor, overall.
Scientific Evidence Of the Effect of Diet on Egg Taste
As far as the scientific evidence is concerned, we can’t say much about the perfect diet for a hen in terms of egg flavor. Such an experiment is plausible, if enough tasters were employed, the right egg layers were sourced, and the proper controls were put in place, it is possible to produce some useable evidence as to whether a certain diet produces better-tasting eggs. A good place to start would be comparing eggs from hens fed a typical commercial diet to hens that are fed almost entirely by free-foraging. While this would be extreme and implausible in reality, it would produce real data.
We don’t have anything so tantalizing, but there are some scientific results worth mentioning. I’ve already mentioned one experiment involving fish oil (specifically, menhaden oil). A bevy of other studies have found similar results.
Another study found that supplementing hens with conjugated lipoic acid made the yolks paler in color and decreased yolk flavor. 2
Another performed an “organoleptic evaluation” of eggs produced by laying hens fed diets containing graded levels of flaxseed and vitamin E. In other words, they employed a tasting panel to find out whether the eggs tasted bad or not. They did. Too much flaxseed along with more vitamin E produced eggs that the tasting panel did not care for. “The highest ratings for egg aroma, yolk flavor, and overall acceptability were for the control eggs.” 3
Other experiments produce different results. This study added either palm butter, grape seed oil, flax seed oil, n − 3 PUFA such as flax seed and marine algae and the natural antioxidant rosemary to the hens diet and found that sensory qualities were not affected. 4
Clearly, food flavors get into eggs. Therefore, the diet of a hen affects the flavor of the eggs. I’ve read many articles explaining that ‘we don’t know of any one diet that makes eggs taste better.’ This is a fact. But that fact does not mean that diet does not affect the taste of eggs, only that egg farmers haven’t figured out exactly what to feed chickens to produce the best-tasting eggs.
Conclusion
The taste of eggs is influenced by the diet of a hen. Certain diets produce eggs with richer-looking, deeper yellow yolks. Many of us, including myself, are convinced that eggs with deeper yellow yolks taste better. We do not know, based on the evidence at hand, if this is true. However, since both factors, yolk color and taste, are influenced by diet to some extent, yolk color may correlate with flavor. A lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.
By the way, while this is much beyond the scope of this article, there is some evidence that the breed of a chicken influences egg flavor! However, egg flavor is not likely to be influenced based on the typical chicken breeds used in America.
Key Points Summary for “Is It True That Yolk Color Doesn’t Influence Egg Taste?”
- Many people believe that an egg yolk with a deep rich yellow colored yolk is a better tasting egg.
- Others believe that the color of an egg’s yolk has nothing to do with flavor.
- A popular explanation is carotenoids in the hen’s diet determine that egg yolk color, but since carotenoids have no taste, yolk color does not influence egg flavor.
- However, this oversimplifies the issue. The typical diet of a hen does seem to influence the overall taste of the eggs she lays.
- Scientific evidence shows that a hen’s diet can affect egg flavor and that large feedings of flaxseed, vitamin E, and conjugated lipoic acid can greately impact sensory qualities.
- Eggs from hens on a typical commercial diet tend to have paler yolks, while free-foraging hens produce eggs with deeper yellow yolks.
- While we may not know the perfect diet for the best-tasting eggs, the color of the yolk does seem to correlate with flavor to some degree.
- The relationship between yolk color and taste is not fully understood, but the evidence suggests that a hen’s diet does influence the flavor of the eggs she lays, and yolk color may be a useful indicator of that flavor.
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- Gonzalez-Esquerra, R., and S. Leeson. “Effect of Feeding Hens Regular or Deodorized Menhaden Oil on Production Parameters, Yolk Fatty Acid Profile, and Sensory Quality of Eggs.” Poultry Science, vol. 79, no. 11, 2000, pp. 1597-1602, https://doi.org/10.1093/ps/79.11.1597. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
- Liu, Xuelan et al. “Effects of conjugated linoleic acid on the performance of laying hens, lipid composition of egg yolk, egg flavor, and serum components.” Asian-Australasian journal of animal sciences vol. 30,3 (2017): 417-423. doi:10.5713/ajas.15.1036
- Leeson, S, et al. “Organoleptic Evaluation of Eggs Produced by Laying Hens Fed Diets Containing Graded Levels of Flaxseed and Vitamin E.” Poultry Science, vol. 77, no. 9, 1998, pp. 1436-1440, https://doi.org/10.1093/ps/77.9.1436. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
- G.P. Parpinello, A. Meluzzi, F. Sirri, N. Tallarico, A. Versari, Sensory evaluation of egg products and eggs laid from hens fed diets with different fatty acid composition and supplemented with antioxidants, Food Research International,
Volume 39, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 47-52, ISSN 0963-9969, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2005.05.010.