How Much Does It Matter What A Hen Eats For An Egg’s Nutrition?

It started with a TikTok posted on Jan. 15 by Zephyr Zoidis, a journalist who reports on the U.S. food system. In bold text, he proclaimed, “Vital Farms Eggs Suspected To Be Fed Corn & Soy With High PUFA Content.”
Commenters were outraged to learn they were paying more for Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs than for conventional eggs, only for them to be exposed as not nutritionally superior.
“The last carton is in our fridge. NOPE to Vital Farms,” commented user @Rinnie. “The love of money is the root of all evil,” another commenter posted, a nod to Vital Farms’ going public in 2020.
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One user, @Arjun Singh, summed it up this way: “Corn and soy = more profit and less nutrients for the chickens.”
Surely, anyone who is paying extra for eggs wants to think of the chickens who provided them as happy, healthy hens. Otherwise, what’s the point, right? But these were TikTok comments — not exactly known for being legit. Besides, what’s wrong with chickens being fed corn and soy anyway? Does it really matter all that much? To find out, we spoke to eco-nutritionists.
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How Much Does What Chickens Eat Actually Matter?
According to eco-nutritionist Sara Keough, what hens eat directly impacts the nutrient makeup of their eggs. She explained that, as the best diet for humans consists of a wide range of nutrient-rich foods, the same goes for chickens.
Integrative eco-dietitian Mary Purdy said this, too. “As humans, what we eat influences our health. Those nutrients end up creating our cells, tissues, organs and muscles. The same goes for animals. The content of their diet is going to influence the nutritional content of their meat as well as the eggs they produce. A healthier chicken is likely to produce a healthier egg,” she told HuffPost.
To this point, one scientific study published by Cambridge University Press found that eggs from pasture-raised hens (who spend most of their time grazing outside) had twice as much vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids as cage-raised hens.
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In terms of the best way for hens to get a wide range of nutrients, Keough said this means eating a diet that includes grasses and insects as well as supplemental feed; they’re not going to get all the nutrients they need just from grass and insects. That said, all the eco-nutritionists we talked to said that not all supplemental feed is the same quality. Chris Vogliano, a registered dietitian and co-founder and director of non-profit Food + Planet, highlighted scientific research showing that hens given feed with flaxseed produced eggs with higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids and carotenoids compared to standard grain-fed hens.
In Zoidis’ now-viral TikTok, he claimed that Vital Farms’ chicken feed consisted of corn and soybeans. While Vital Farms declined an interview for this article, their communications team answered questions by pulling answers from the brand’s website and social media pages. According to Vital Farms’ website, their farmers are allowed to feed their chickens corn and soy. “A combination of a foraged diet and supplemental feed helps laying hens meet their nutritional needs. Our feed consists primarily of corn and soybean meal, which provide the hens protein and energy needed for their active lifestyles, as well as additional natural ingredients, including paprika and marigold, which, along with their outdoor snacks, help the hens produce eggs with deep orange yolks that our consumers prefer,” the site says.
Eco-nutritionist Ryah Nabielski told HuffPost that the reason why a corn- and soy-based feed isn’t ideal is that it can lead to eggs having a higher omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Keough said this as well, explaining that while omega-6 fatty acids are essential in small amounts, too much can cause inflammation. It’s important to note that this finding has been shown to be true in animal studies, but not in human studies.
If you’re one of the 1.9 million Americans with a soy allergy, you may be wondering if it’s safe for you to eat eggs if the hen that laid them was fed soy. According to Keough, unless you are extremely sensitive, you’re safe. She explained that when hens eat soy, the amino acids are broken down through digestion and used to build other proteins in the egg. “At that point, only a very minimal amount of soy isoflavones [non-protein compounds] are left [in the yolk],” she said.
With all this in mind, it’s not a big deal if hens are being fed feed with corn and soy; it just shouldn’t be all that they eat. Like humans, healthy hens need a varied diet.
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Tips For Buying Nutrient-Rich Eggs
If you want to buy the most nutrient-rich eggs from the happiest hens, all four eco-nutritionists’ advice boils down to two words: Shop local. “Know your farmer. Get to know how your food is produced. This does not have to look like an episode of ‘Portlandia,’ but really understanding where your food comes from and who is involved is key. It’s baffling to me that we have gotten so far away from the source of our food that we do not even know if the animals we are consuming were treated humanely,” Purdy said.
For example, you can ask about what is in their chicken feed: Is it standard feed or flaxseed-based, the type of chicken feed that has been found to lead to eggs with more omega-3 fatty acids?
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Keough said this, too, adding that talking with local farmers also provides an opportunity to ask about how much space the chickens have to graze, time spent outside and other questions related to their well-being. Farmers who pride themselves on taking good care of their hens will be happy to tell you.
If you don’t have access to farmers markets or prefer to buy your eggs at the grocery store, Vogliano’s advice is to look for third-party certifications such as “Certified Humane” or “USDA Organic” instead of relying on unregulated marketing terms. “The term ‘pasture-raised’ is not defined by the USDA for eggs, meaning standards can vary unless the claim is backed by a third-party certification. Terms like ‘natural’ or ‘farm-fresh’ are unregulated and offer no assurance of animal welfare or farming practices,” he said.
Vogliano explained that “Certified Humane” requires cage-free housing, minimum space per bird, environmental enrichment and limits antibiotic use except in cases of treating sick animals. This means that the hens graze outside and have a more varied diet (resulting in more nutrient-rich eggs) compared to caged hens that are only fed standard chicken feed.
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“‘USDA Organic’ requires organic feed and outdoor access, though the size and quality of that outdoor space can vary,” Vogliano added. Organic chicken feed uses ingredients grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or GMOs, which may lead to healthier hens and more nutrient-rich eggs.
For their part, Vital Farms maintains that they are committed to raising happy, healthy hens. “Our pasture-raised standards have not changed — they’ve just scaled across hundreds more family farms and communities. But across our business, the standards actually have changed — they’ve gotten higher,” the brand stated on its website.
The bottom line is that when it comes to what hens eat, all the experts say that a varied diet is best, and this ideally comes from a combination of grazing outside and supplemental feed. Where does that leave Vital Farms? Keough said that she believes that their eggs are better than those from caged chickens sourced from conventional farms, but nothing trumps getting your eggs from local farmers who feed their hens a variety of feeds.