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Eggs And Dairy

The Incredible Egg

The wonderful edible egg, claimed to be one of the "perfect" foods by many.

An abundance of useful information can be found here.

Concerned about egg food safety? Check out valuable information here, and here.

Even more detailed health benefits, recipes, and nutritional information can be found here.

An industry site is here.

And most importantly, hundreds of food recipes with eggs at the center of attention are here - everything from the old favorites, to desserts, entrees, breakfast ideas, low carb, even homemade mayonnaise.

Egg Protein

A large chicken egg provides approximately 6 grams of protein.

Protein content of egg white = 3.6g, protein content of egg yolk = 2.7g

Because of their high protein content, eggs are included in the meat, fish, poultry, nuts, and beans group of the US Food Guidance Systems.

Eggs have the highest quality protein in the food supply with the amino acid pattern almost matching the human requirement for essential amino acids (FAO protein value=100).

Digestibility of egg protein is 97%. This means that 97% of the egg protein is absorbed as amino acids, which are available for new protein synthesis and replacement of lost protein.

An interesting fact not known by many is that cooked egg protein is far more digestible than raw egg protein (cooked egg protein digestibility = 90.9%+/-0.8, raw egg protein digestibility = 51.3+/-9.8).

The biological value of egg protein is 94%. Biological value is a measure of the rate at which the protein in food supports growth. Eggs and milk have the highest biological value and provide more amino acids for growth and tissue maintenance than even meat -- including beef, chicken, pork, and fish.

Interesting Egg Facts

Due to an unusual strain of salmonella that is passed from a chicken's ovary to its eggs, USDA has recommended that no eggs be eaten raw or partially cooked.

The green discoloration that sometimes is found on the yolk of a hard-cooked egg is the result of cooking the egg too long or at too high a temperature, or cooling it too rapidly following cooking. It has no effect on the safety or nutritional value of the egg.

While raw eggs may be kept refrigerated in their closed container for several weeks, cooked eggs in the shell will only keep up to 7 days refrigerated, and shelled, cooked eggs kept covered last only 5 days. Cooked eggs should never be kept at room temperature for more than 2 hours.

If hard cooked eggs are difficult to peel, most likely they were freshly laid eggs. Eggs that have been stored in the refrigerator for a number of days will peel more easily.

Occasionally a blood spot may appear in eggs, although this is highly unlikely in eggs that come from commercial suppliers. The spot is not a sign of spoilage in the egg, simply something that was missed as the eggs were examined prior to shipping. There is nothing wrong with the egg.

The most yolks ever found in an egg: nine - in a chicken’s egg.

Longest incubation period for an egg: the Royal Albatross’ eggs take 79 days to hatch.

World’s smallest bird egg: hummingbird.

World’s largest bird egg: ostrich.

The now-extinct elephant bird of Madagascar laid an egg that weighed 27 pounds.

In order for hens to lay mass amounts of commercially produced eggs, they are exposed to artificial light for 17 hours a day.

Each egg laying hen averages about 300 eggs per year.

Most egg bearing hens live an average of 5 to 6 years.

The shell constitutes 12 percent of an egg's weight.

There is absolutely no nutritional difference between a white shell chicken egg or a brown shell chicken egg.

A chicken egg takes between 20 and 24 hours to develop, beginning with the yolk and working out to the shell. A yolk makes up 31% of of an egg's total weight and is made up of 51% water, 16% protein, 30.5% fat and some minerals. 75% of the egg is water.

Egg consumption is highest in Japan, Mexico, Spain, and France. These countries also have among the lowest rates of death from heart disease in the world.

The fresher the egg, the higher it will sit in the pan when first broken. The staler the egg, the more it will spread out, and the yolk is more likely to break.

Historians believe that the first chickens related to today’s egg layers were brought to America by Columbus’ ships.

The chicken breed that lays most of the eggs we eat is the Single-Comb White Leghorn.

The smaller the air cell in the egg, the higher the grade. Eggs are graded AA, A and B. AA is the highest grade.

Large-sized eggs are the size hens most often lay. One dozen Large-sized eggs weigh 1 1/2 pounds.

In the U.S. in 1998, hens produced 6,657,000,000 dozen eggs – that’s 6.657 billion dozen!