While eggs might be an important staple in many refrigerators across the U.S., there’s an equal number of questions and concerns regarding their appearance. Any slight cloudiness, weird white strands, different colored shells, red flecks, or deviation in the yolk’s sunny color, and many of us take pause. (Spoiler alert: They’re all perfectly safe to eat and don’t substantially change the taste.)
One especially freaky occurrence: seeing a completely white—or incredibly light yellow—yolk. I’m talking ghostly levels of pale. It’s enough to make you frantically Google search or call your mom mid-recipe to double-check if it’s OK to consume. The good news is that you don’t need to toss that fried egg from the pan or scrap that whole bowl of pancake batter you were working on. Coming across a white yolk is perfectly natural, albeit a little rare in the United States.
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What Causes an Egg Yolk To Be White?
The color of your egg yolk depends on the feed the chickens eat. In the United States, chickens typically eat a diet of yellow corn, and the pigments from the plant make their way into the egg yolks. Those pigments, called xanthophylls, are also what give chicken skin and fat its yellowish tint. If the chicken happened to eat more white corn than yellow, the yolk will be paler as well.
If you’ve traveled overseas, you’ve probably noticed that the color of yolks varies widely across the globe. Again, this difference comes down to what the chickens are eating. In many African countries, for example, chickens typically have a diet of mostly sorghum—a grain with much less yellow pigmentation than yellow corn—resulting in lighter or completely white yolks. If you’ve traveled to South American countries and have noticed pink, blood orange, or almost reddish yolks, it’s because chicken feed there is often fortified with red annatto seeds.
In the U.S., we’ve come to falsely associate darker yolks with happier hens or better nutrition, but farmers can easily manipulate chicken feed to include carrots, alfalfa powder, or marigold to impact the color of their chickens’ eggs.
So, when you come across an egg yolk that’s pale, don’t freak out. The occasional, unexpected white yolk in your carton or eggs is just as edible and delicious as a yellow one.
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