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Why are egg yolks different colours? Comments from Macdonald Campus Farm technician Louis-Philippe Dessureault

Carton of brown chicken eggs with one cracked open to reveal a bright yellow yolk
Published: 21 January 2025

National Post published an article that cracking the case of egg yolk colours, from nutrition to taste, and how they came about in the first place.

Unlike shell colour, which depends on the breed of chicken, the hue of an egg yolk is determined by the hen’s diet.

“(Depending on) the diet makeup, you can have a very wide variety of colour ranges,” egg-splained Louis-Philippe Dessureault, an animal science technician at 㽶Ƶ’s Macdonald Campus Farm, which provides eggs to dining services as part of the McGill Feeding McGill initiative. A diet rich in grains, such as barley, oats and wheat, yields paler egg yolks. At the other end of the spectrum, foraging birds feeding on acorns could lay brown-yolked eggs.

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