Photo: Aitor Diago / Moment / Getty Images
Photo Credit: Getty Images
As Americans down an average of nearly 300 eggs a year, you’ve likely cracked open an egg to see a yolk slightly different than what you’re used to, whether a bright orange or pale yellow yolk. “Egg yolk color can range anywhere from almost white to a blood-red color,” Richard Blatchford, PhD, a poultry researcher and associate specialist in Cooperative Extension: Small to Industry Scale Poultry at the UC Davis Department of Animal Science, told Food & Wine. One shade isn’t necessarily better than the other, but the different shades do have a meaning, particularly regarding how the hen was raised.
Here is what the color of your yolk means, according to Jen Houchins, PhD, RD, director of nutrition research at The American Egg Board’s Egg Nutrition Center:
Pale yellow: A pale yellow yolk signifies a diet heavy in wheat, barley, or white cornmeal.
Bright yellow: Bright yellow or yellow-orange yolks mean that the hen had a diet with a lot of corn and/or alfalfa meal.
Orange: A deeper orange yolk can come from a diet that includes foraging, “where hens can access different plants and insects whose pigments can impact color.” Hens tend to be outside more during the spring and summer, which increases the probability of foraging. This color can also be produced by adding marigold petals or red pepper to the hen’s food, though Houchins noted that artificial color additives are not allowed in the U.S.
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