If you’re going to scramble some eggs, you still need to crack open the wallet, just not nearly as wide. Egg prices have plummeted in recent weeks.
A quick price check showed a dozen large, grade A eggs at H-E-B costs $2.63, significantly lower than the $4.48 posted three months ago.
Walmart’s price also dropped from $5.28 a dozen to $2.98.
When you shop for eggs, you see a wide range of prices and various labels. There’s cage-free, organic and a lot more. But what do the words like free-range or pasture-raised actually mean, and are they worth paying a higher price?
“A lot of these terms on egg cartons don’t really have any defined meaning, and if you’re going to pay a premium price for eggs you want to make sure you’re getting what you think you’re getting,” said Trisha Calvo of Consumer Reports.
To start, Calvo said there are labels that can be ignored, such as “farm fresh,” “natural,” and “no hormones.”
“All eggs are from farms, and all eggs are natural, so ‘farm fresh’ and ‘natural’ really have no clear meaning,” she said. “And by law, chickens can’t be given hormones. So a carton of eggs that have these claims isn’t really any different from a carton that doesn’t.”
“Cage-free” can be misleading. While it’s true that hens aren’t kept in cages, they can still be kept indoors, often in crowded conditions. “Free range” labels are also dubious.
“Free-range birds aren’t kept in cages and they do have outdoor access, but they can still be raised in crowded conditions and the outdoor area can be very tiny,” Calvo said.
If the eggs have an “organic” seal, it means the eggs were laid by hens that were fed grains grown without most synthetic pesticides or GMOs. The birds can’t be raised in cages and must have outdoor access, though that could still mean confined conditions in a building with just a small concrete porch.
“Pasture-raised” labels on their own aren’t meaningful, Calvo said. But, if it’s paired with the “Certified Humane” label, you can be sure the chickens had access to a pasture with space.
So, if buying eggs from healthier hens that were raised in more humane conditions is important to you, choose “pasture-raised,” but be prepared to pay a premium.