Previously
in this series:
This
is part two in my series of posts where I labor to get to the bottom of all
that information that covers those egg cartons that reside in our
fridges. Right now I’m looking at an egg
carton that was purchased from ALDI a while ago.
ALDI is a grocery store chain that started in Germany and lately has been expanding its
presence in the United States. The company
website shows that the majority of its supermarkets are located on the East
Coast but that they're also moving into the Midwest and California.
The
brand logo proclaims these eggs to be “Goldhen Farm Fresh Eggs” and the picture
shows a white chicken on a background of radiating yellow stripes at the top
and green on the bottom. It is stylized
but it the chicken is obviously standing on a grassy hill in the sunshine. Apparently egg companies like to present a bucolic
image. Check out the names on the egg
cartons next time you’re at the grocery store and notice how words like “country”,
“sunny”, “brook”, and “meadow” keep popping up.
Following that trend, Goldhen tells us that these eggs are “farm fresh”.
What does that mean, exactly? In this day of backyard chickens, the
freshest eggs may actually come from the coop in your urban backyard – far, far
away from the nearest farm. Of course
raising hens on a commercial scale in the city is not practical, so these eggs no
doubt came from a farm somewhere out in the country. So how fresh are they? Well, there are “sell by” standards that must
be maintained. Were these eggs laid
yesterday? Probably not.