Super Eco

Photo credit: House of Sims, Flickr

Choosing eggs scrambles my brain. I can stand in front of the egg display at the grocery store, pecking and clucking at all the choices, for so long that I've considered using (brace yourselves) an egg timer to keep me moving along. So it is with great relief that I read that nearly two-thirds of all cage-free eggs are now American Humane Certified, showing that an outside organization has given the green light to the humane treatment of the producers' chickens.

The 10 existing AHC cage-free egg producers represent 8 million of the 12-13 million laying hens producing cage-free eggs annually in the United States. The American Humane Certified label now moves into the leadership position in certifying humane treatment of chickens producing cage-free eggs. This growing standardization bolsters the confidence of egg-headed consumers (like me!) who get all wrapped up hatching the ideal egg shopping list.

The problem is an abundance of egg-ology: cage-free, free range, organic, Omega-3 fortified, certified humane ... The New York Times cracked the topic last fall, but it's safe to say that there are still a lot of confused consumers out there.

Our best advice: Decide what aspects of egg quality are important to you—humane treatment of the chickens, absence of antibiotics, Omega-3 fortification, pasteurization, and so on—and aim for a category that covers all the bases. It's not exactly over easy, but at least labels like American Humane Certified are helping us sort out the facts from the feathers.