what is the deal with white eggs?

[EricaNernie]

i buy them from waitrose, purely for a novelty value
i did half catch a jeremy vine radio discussion about them but didnt learn much.

is it just waitrose? or are they making a come back
i know in some respect they are aesthetically pleasing > but didnt they go out of fashion in the 70s?

They did go out of fashion in 70s apparently yes. Hens that produce white eggs are less aggressive so it's actually more ethical to buy white eggs.

Most eggs used to be white with only more expensive ones being brown. Probably was around the 70s it changed.

I bought some eggs last week from Tesco and they were white. I hadn't seen white eggs for years before this. They were supposed to be medium size but definitely smaller as well.

I found some in Lidl last week (always open before buying) and hastily put them back!
They look anaemic to me.

They definately taste

so the white hens are easier natured?

I think brown eggs began to be perceived as healthier.... I’d love to see some white ones now.

Do they all taste the same? I always thought an egg is an egg I didn't think the shell colour made any difference?

I read this as 'What's the deal with egg whites?'

I was expecting lots of meringue recipes...

sorry, i meant to say they seem to taste the same

They did go out of fashion in 70s apparently yes. Hens that produce white eggs are less aggressive so it's actually more ethical to buy white eggs.

@Bb2019 I’m not sure what you mean by this? Commercial ISA Browns are generally well natured. I’ve been rescuing through a charity for years and have never seen an aggressive one. Also how is it more ethical not to buy brown eggs?

I have noticed that all eggs in America seem to be white (on tv, anyway).

They are all the same. Just different breeds of chicken.

Brown eggs because healthier at the same time as brown bread and, again like the bread, really aren't any different other than in colouring.

Why do you care about the colour of eggshells?

Here we go, 2006 Guardian article:

It may seem an obscure concern, but if you were planning to do a spot of Easter egg-decorating this weekend, then it's one that may, so to speak, come home to roost. It's all very well to apply opaque paints to brown eggs, but if you use coloured pencils - and especially if you dye eggs - only white ones will do.

The trouble is, they are getting harder to find. Go to your supermarket and - organic, free-range or plain old battery-farmed - you can, to paraphrase Henry Ford, have any colour you like, so long as it's brown.

In past years, my quest for white eggs was answered by our local street market, which stocked them, I was told, because the largely Caribbean clientele preferred them. This year, no such luck. A more upmarket source had been Selfridges, in London, but now they, too, have discontinued whites: the palest eggs they had were those posh bluish ones. Last year, in desperation, I settled for duck eggs from a farmers' market. But they didn't take dye well.

In the 50s and 60s, white eggs were all you could find: the white-producing breeds were more efficient layers. Over time, though, consumers acquired the perception that they were like white bread (less nutritious, less wholesome), while brown eggs were almost exotic, sold in clear cases, shown off like jewels - and priced accordingly. As someone who grew up keeping chickens, I knew just what a sell that was. White leghorns laid white eggs and Rhode Island reds laid brown.

Since consumers regarded brown eggs as more "rustic", according to Kevin Coles at the British Egg Information Service, hybrids were bred to turn out one brown egg a day, year-round. Very rustic. England's retail eggs are now "almost 100% brown", says Coles. (Halal eggs, on the other hand, apparently have to be white.)

By this time, however, I had finally found the right eggs. Not in the sober setting of a ritual butcher's shop, but in the festive shrine to commerce that is Harrod's: Blackwell Hadden eggs, from Herons Farm in Essex. Laid by leghorns, and organic at that. Maybe, in years to come, white will be the new rustic.

I keep lots of hens. White hens lay white eggs, brown hens lay brown eggs etc. I have a big tall grey one that mega unfriendly and she lays blue ones.

The hens that lay consistently are the brown ex- battery hens I have which is why they are commercial hens in the UK. In the US their commercial layers are white hence white eggs.

There is zero difference in the taste, so if you think you notice a difference it's just down to freshness and welfare that's all.

@Potatobug well, why do you care enough to post on the thread?

I heard on Radio 4 that hens that produce brown eggs often have to be de-beaked so they don't peck each other which is why white eggs are more ethical.

I still haven't seen any for sale though.

Only just fully realised how wanky that Guardian article is Didn't read it all the way through originally.

Some of our white hens lay brown eggs.

@allnamesaregone happy to be corrected by f I'm wrong but I was told in an intensive farming scenario less pecking /no de beaking. Obviously free range is the more ethical choice vs intensively farmed.

I was surprised to find white eggs when My Tesco shopping was delivered .
I thought maybe with all the shortages that we have had lately that Tescos had been sourcing their eggs from somewhere eles .

I don't think they taste any different or see how they could be more healthy.

They are exactly the same inside, but people tend to choose brown, so brown eggs tend to be sold as eggs and white eggs used in pre-made food (eg. Supermarket cake).

I would guess the sudden reappearance of white eggs in shops is either to up supply due to egg shortage, or because or a reduction in demand for eggs for industry (factory's closing maybe). Kind of makes sense if we're all at home baking, and going to shops less.

I had a veg box delivery last week which came with white eggs. Was delighted, not seen them since the 1970s. Brown eggs WERE considered ‘healthier’ in the 70s. I remember that eggs were routinely white until the producers started to change commercial breeds.

In my country all the eggs you buy in the supermarket are white. You might be able to get some brown ones from people who have their own hens. I have lived in England, but had forgotten that eggs there are mostly brown.

Seriously it,s the breed of chickens this is a weird thread.