If I ask you to close your eyes and imagine an egg, it is very likely that egg was white. Gallina eggs, both in the collective imaginary and in popular culture, are white. And, however, nine out of ten eggs that are sold to the public in Spain are brown.
Why are the eggs no longer white? Where have they gotten?
Egg shell. The most direct answer is that they have not gotten anywhere. The color of the eggs, in principle, depends on something very simple: the color of the chickens. In very general terms, dark plumage chickens give brunette eggs and light color chickens give white eggs.
And I say in general terms because there are blue eggs, pink, green beige and even broken white. There are several theories that explain this, but the most popular tells us that they are adaptations of the different species of chickens to favor camouflage and survival in nature.
Beyond that evolutionary reason, the color gives a bit the same: because there are no organoleptic differences in eggs according to their flavor. This, of course, does not solve the mystery of the disappearance of white eggs but makes it deeper.
The reign of white eggs. During the 50s and 60s, when egg production began to ‘intensive’, Spanish farmers began to introduce white chickens. It made sense, they were varieties that lived longer and were more productive. It was no coincidence: the Leghorn variety, one of the most popular, had been selected in the US, England and Italy for more than a hundred years.
That genetic ‘advantage’ continues to occur today: according to the data of poultry variety of Germany, the white chickens put about 450 eggs in 18 months, while the browns that put about 380. In addition, the white ones are smaller (they occupy less space, eat less) and less aggressive. The result is that white eggs have 9% less costs than brown.
And what happened to them? The brilliant success of white eggs had a problem: in a country that had urbanized very quickly (and in which a good part of its population maintained contact with the rural world), consumers began to associate white color with intensive livestock and industrial.
In reality, the taste, the nutritional value or the quality of the eggs do not depend on color. They depend on things such as the good health of the animal, the physical activity they perform or its food. Therefore, for decades the farm eggs were at a disadvantage with which those who put small farms in the market (or raised at home).
Like those small farms used local varieties (that is, brown), the identification between brunette eggs and camperus eggs caught in the collective imaginary.
The market response … When the producers realized this, they began to modify what they took to the market: little by little, the linear of the supermarket were filled with brunette eggs and the white eggs were redirected to the hospitality or industrial food (where going at the Price is more important).
… but from the Spanish market. It is important to take this into account: in countries like Germany, white eggs are kings and in the Netherlands they have more and more weight in the market. In the United States and England, you can find the two types of major problem.
That (above all, taking into account what has happened in other European markets) leads us to ask ourselves if it is possible that white eggs end up returning to supermarkets. To the extent that there are no substantial differences between some eggs and others, until when will prejudices last the white eggs that lead us to ignore something as “objective” as the price?
No one knows it for sure. Above all, because unlike small markets such as the Dutchman (in front of the German), Spanish is a very difficult bone to crack for foreign competition. However, we already know how little those balances last.
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