Victim of egg fraud

[MidnightPatrol]

Earlier this week I read that people were swapping ‘premium eggs’ in the supermarket, for cheaper ones.

Reader, today I opened my Clarence court eggs to find… only half in a box of ten had the relevant crown stamp.

I’ve been had!

Check your eggs!

"Golden" yolks are dyed with carotenoids and petals. The colour of the yolk bears no relevance to the quality of the egg. A pale yolk is just as healthy as a darker yolk.

Your DM and your DH are both wrong.

I wonder if this why the yolks in my Duchy organic eggs were a sickly yellow colour? 🤔

But that is OK as DP got 12 for 50p.

The colour of the yolk bears no relation to anything, except what the hen has been fed. In order to dye the yolk. It does not denote health, or value.

I’ve started buying eggs from our local butcher they’re so much fresher. We was lucky for about 10 years our neighbours had rescue hens and their eggs were absolutely delicious. We met a couple at a dinner party once that supplied eggs to Sainsbury’s. Supermarket eggs can be up to 3 weeks old before they land on your plate. Massively recommend finding local eggs wherever you are they are so much tastier

I only mention it as the last yolks looked much richer. I'm sure you're right.

It’s not health, it’s flavour. They definitely taste different as I had both for my tea last week and one was definitely tastier than the others (possibly the petals!)

Try it without seeing the colour of the yolk. A blind test.

Well I had to buy some eggs today, and newly suspicious was inspecting them in the box.

But then realised I probably looked like I was stealing or swapping them.

I cant win now, buying eggs will be forever awkward.

I picked up a box of posh eggs to treat myself, when I opened the box to check they weren’t broken, two were missing! So shocked.

Thankfully I can pick up eggs from a local honesty shop (basically a box outside of their house) which are cheaper than the supermarket free range and you can see the hens scurrying around in the dirt over the fence (unless they have been locked up for bird flu)

Had to Google Clarence court eggs to be fair

Wicked, some people, wicked

Eggtortionate price too

Don't think I've ever seen a date stamp on any eggs I've bought from our local farmer's honesty box. Chicken shit and hay, yes.

And, random thread derail question... why can't you buy turkey eggs?

You can buy turkey eggs but they don’t lay as many so not really viable to a farmer to sell.

Clearly you haven’t worked in Waitrose. Yes, customers do this.

All checkout operators should be trained to open egg boxes to check for breakages, including turning the box over to check for wet patches underneath.

The people that pull these tricks go through self checkout, or scan with a handset.

Because turkeys have not been bred to produce eggs, they have been bred to produce meat.

I've been a victim too! I had a whole box recently of watery eggs that split and had thin shells when I'd paid a small fortune.

Also on swapping, I bought a pair of leggings in a box to find one missing and the other worn.

I’ve worked in the industry so want to clear up some misunderstanding on this thread…

• yes the orange rich yolks are because the hens are fed a diet containing petals and carotinoids, however if the hens were stressed this would impact the yolk colour, you wouldn’t get the bright orange
• the eggs are stamped at the egg packer, not the supermarket
• it’s a real thing people swap eggs and it’s super common
• Burfords do have nice eggs but the hens aren’t very healthy because they are very inbred (to get the Burford breed)
• organic eggs aren’t as good for hens as it means hens can’t be treated for diseases because it would impact the organic status

Really interesting. Thanks!

Can I ask you a question - are "large" eggs more cruel to hens?

@LightningMode the size of the egg just relates to how old the hens are, so not more cruel. Though they will be at the end of their useful lives so off to be made into chicken nuggets!

Thank you. I can now buy Large eggs with a clear conscience! 🥚

Yep happened to me last week - click and collect from Sainsbury’s - I checked in the carpark and asked the guy to get me the right ones, he took ages and said he couldn’t believe how few (individual eggs not full boxes!) he could find as so many had been replaced with standard eggs! So glad I saw on SM as I would never have checked first.

i heard mixed eggs are better as hens generally lay a mixture of sizes

My husband eats a lot of eggs so he buys what we call peasant eggs, I would rather eat fewer but nicer eggs. They are hugely different!