Brown eggs are slowly disappearing from supermarkets, but why?

NOS News•today, 5:45 PM

Brown eggs are disappearing from more and more supermarket shelves, De Telegraaf reports today. For example, Lidl has only sold white eggs since 2019 and Albert Heijn will also switch to only white eggs from the end of July. And yet many consumers still prefer brown eggs. But is there actually a difference?

In general, brown chickens lay brown eggs and white chickens lay white ones, although the color of the egg ultimately depends on the earlobe. A chicken with a white earlobe lays a white egg. A chicken with a red earlobe lays a brown egg.

A chicken with a white earlobe lays a white egg, a chicken with a red earlobe lays a brown egg:

White eggs are a lot cheaper for the farmer, says Peter van Horne, poultry economist at Wageningen University. Production costs are 9 percent lower. The white chicken is smaller and therefore requires less feed, while the chicken lays more eggs than the brown chicken, he explains. “And they also keep laying ten weeks longer. This means a farmer needs new chickens less often, which is more sustainable.”

The chickens are bred this way, says Van Horne. “Breeding companies have apparently achieved better results with white chickens than with brown ones.”

According to the economist, white eggs only have advantages. “The only problem is the consumer.” Many customers in the Netherlands have animal-friendly and healthier associations with brown eggs. “That image is very persistent, but outdated,” says Van Horne. “There is no distinction. You have to convince the consumer that you can also buy white eggs.”

Bert-Jan Oplaat, chairman of the Dutch Poultry Farmers’ Union, also calls the idea that brown eggs are healthier than white ones “a myth”. Farmers initially chose the brown chicken, which lays mainly brown eggs, for practical reasons. This one flies less and is therefore easier to have outside than the white chicken, says Oplaat.

The complete switch to white eggs does not make much difference for the well-being of the animals, says Collin Molenaar of Wakker Dier. White chickens are less likely to injure each other than brown ones. In stressful situations, all chickens are inclined to peck each other with their beaks.

“The white chickens are a bit calmer, which is better economically. But the only reason why chickens peck each other at all is because they are confined in spaces that are too small. The best thing you can do for the chicken is to buy organic eggs and pay attention on quality marks, such as the Better Life quality mark.”

In Germany, only white eggs on the shelves have been a very normal sight for some time. The trend is also gradually emerging in other countries, such as England and France.

Dutch egg farmers, for whom Germany is the largest purchasing country, are responding to this. Where previously a third of the chickens in the Netherlands were white, this is now two-thirds, says poultry economist Van Horne.

Yet the brown chicken will not disappear, says the chairman of the trade association. “This one lays heavier eggs. And the chicken is also heavier, which is better for slaughter. In the Netherlands we always want our meat to be tender very quickly, and then this heavier chicken is better than a small white chicken.”

Despite customers’ associations with the color of eggs, Albert Heijn, whose range already largely consists of white eggs, says it has not yet received any comments from customers about the increasingly limited range of brown eggs. “While we expected it,” says a spokesperson.