Diet advertising on egg packs...what does it mean?

[Ibicella]

I'm still waiting for the day when I can get my own chickens, so in the meantime I'm making do with store-bought eggs and dreaming of the day of having farm-fresh omelets again.

This has probably been answered before, so I'm sorry if I'm bringing up an old topic.

I've noticed that more and more I'm seeing things like "Grain fed chickens!" and "fed an all-vegetarian diet!" being advertised on the packaging of different brands of eggs. It makes no sense to me. Does anybody have any idea what that is supposed to mean to us as consumers? Why would you try to turn a chicken into a vegetarian?

 

[gritsar]

IMO, chickens fed a vegetarian diet are unhappy chickens. Chickens are omnivores and they especially love meat. Those advertising catch phrases are for people that don't know which end is the beak and which is the vent.
Probably the same people that think you need a roo to get eggs or that brown eggs are spoiled.

 

[australorp_breeder]

Woah, I've never heard of the 'brown eggs are spoiled' one.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Yeah that one came from the police captain's wife. 'Course she burns water. No, that's not right. She can't burn water because she doesn't know what a stove is.

 

[cjeanean]

Quote:
I believe the reference is to convince consumers that the eggs are from healthy, happy chickens. At least that's what I gather from it, I've never really paid attention. Probably also to appeal to the vegetarian consumers, letting them know that their eggs aren't the byproduct of meat, if that makes sense.

 

[Laurieks]

Quote:
I think it implies they haven't been fed other animals, who could carry mad cow, etc.
I guess they don't want consumers to know that chickens eat bugs....

I just saw a box that says something about their brown eggs from brown hens.

 

[dragonlair]

If a hen ate a worm, could she get mad worm disease?

 

[Laurieks]

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MuHaHa!

 

[greathorse]

I will explain this the best way I know how after a lot of years in the food industry and marketing mostly to folks in the natural and organic business. After the big mad cow scare whereby it is clearly understood that this disease is caused by cows eating cows. The folks that raise niche products wanted to make sure that they could differntiate themselves by clearly documenting that no animal by products were fed to the animals.

It is often conceded that many meat animals today eat by products that arent exactly things folks want in their food products.

When niche marketers wanted to be able to tell the consumers that the animals they produce were not fed rendered by products it created a challenge. Fed no animal by products is likely the most accurate way to describe this but had less marketing appeal than vegetarian diet.

It is too bad because it implies that a vegetarian diet is healthier and that we would be healthier if we were vegetarians. It creates an irony doesn't it?

I think most consumers are fully aware of the fact that chickens eat bugs and such.

The veg fed statement though seemingly ironic was not created in the vacuum some folks beleive it was.

And frankly though I would not advocate that a vegetarian diet is healthier for chickens, they can do very well on a diet with enough protein from other sources.

 

[Akane]

Consumers fall for the "grain fed" or "pasture raised" beef arguments so they've started putting it on eggs and chicken. Most people don't realize chickens aren't herbivores. It's all just marketing and if anything the chickens would be less healthy.