Not all chicken yolks look the same. Some are pale yellow — while some are so orange they’re almost red.
But what does that mean? Are they egg yolks like lettuce, where darker color indicates more nutrients?
Fox News Digital spoke with an egg expert to clarify the case.
WANT TO KEEP RAW EGGS FRESH FOR LONGER? FOOD SCIENTISTS SAY THEY’VE FOUND A WAY
Chicken yolk color, cookbook author and backyard chicken expert Lisa Steele told Fox News Digital, “depends entirely on the hen’s diet.”
Steele, who lives in Maine, is the creator of Fresh Eggs Daily, a website about raising chickens. She is also an author “Daily cookbook for fresh eggs.”
Chicken egg yolks come in a spectrum of colors, from pale yellow to deep orange. (iStock)
“Foods high in xanthophylls and carotenes, which are basically pigments called carotenoids, will make a nice dark orange yolks“, she said.
Carotene is found in orange-colored foods, she said, such as carrots, mangoes, cantaloupe and pumpkin.
Xanthophyll can be found in leafy green vegetables, such as spinach and kale.
IS A BROKEN EGG EVER SAFE TO EAT? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
But while a darker egg yolk doesn’t mean the chicken is eating nutritious, organic or fresh food, “it’s likely to be correlated, since pigmented food is also packed with other nutrients,” she said.
Despite this, feed companies and commercial egg farms have discovered solutions to create a darker yolk without these nutritionally rich foodSteele said.
The color of the yolk depends entirely on the hen’s diet, the expert said. A diet high in carotene and xanthophyll will produce a darker yolk. (iStock)
These companies “got smart and realized that consumers want to see a bright orange yolk, so they’ll add things like marigolds, peppers, seaweed, corn [and] alfalfa to ‘artificially’ enhance the color of the yolk,” she said.
To ensure the most nutritious eggs possible, Steele suggests shoppers look for specific markings on boxes at the grocery store.
10 BEST DIETS IN 2025 AS CHOSEN BY NUTRITION EXPERTS
Chickens that are “pasture-raised” or “free-range” will typically lay eggs with a darker, more orange yolk, Steele said, “because their diet consists mostly of grasses, weeds and other plants.”
It’s important to note that “cage-free” and “pasture-raised” are not the same thing, she said.
Chickens that have access to the outdoors tend to have a more varied diet, producing a darker yolk, the expert said. (iStock)
Pasture-raised eggs are the “gold standard,” Steele told Fox News Digital, noting that some “cage-free” chickens may still be living out their lives in a warehouse.
For more lifestyle articles visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle
Eggs from pasture-raised chickens they have less cholesterol and more nutrients, Steele said, because of their healthier and more varied diets.
Yolks aren’t the only thing that comes in different colors.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
Shells also vary.
Unlike the yolk, the color of the shell has nothing to do with the egg’s nutritional value, Steele said.
The color of the shell has nothing to do with the nutritional value of the egg. (Yulii Zozulia / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
The color is “solely based on the breed of hen,” Steele said.
“Some chickens are brown, while others are blue, and some are not.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
And it’s not the yolk.
