Healthy hens hatch success for Eggland's Best - NBC News

CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J. — Which came first, the chicken or the low-fat, low-cholesterol egg?
At Eggland's Best Inc., the company's healthier eggs start with hens fed a carefully controlled vegetarian diet, patented under the unwieldy title, "Egg Compatible With Cholesterol Reducing Diet and Method of Producing the Same."

Compared with regular eggs, Eggland's have 25 percent less saturated fat, 15 percent less cholesterol and several times more vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids, which both are believed to reduce risk of heart disease and other disorders. Eggland's eggs, introduced in 1992, also contain more of the essential mineral iodine and lutein, an antioxidant thought to boost the immune system and help prevent cancer and the eye disorder macular degeneration.

"The good things we're better on and the bad things we're lower on. The perfect food just became more perfect," said Eggland's president and chief executive officer, Charlie Lanktree.
"This is a really special product and it has science to back it up," added Lanktree, whose enthusiasm for his wares rivals that of chicken magnate Frank Perdue.

The eggs' health benefits, along with heavy advertising, have helped to boost revenues at the tiny Cedar Knolls company by double digits for nine straight years. Retail revenues from Eggland's eggs — which sell at a premium of up to $1 per dozen over regular eggs — totaled about $200 million last year, with about $27 million going to the corporation and the rest to Eggland's Best farmers and grocery stores.
Reasons for Eggland's premium price include higher costs for feed and care of the hens and strict quality control. About 250,000 eggs are rejected each day for defects in shell quality and other factors, said Bart Slaugh, director of quality assurance and head of the company research facility in Chester County, Pa., where scientists tinker with their vegetarian feed formula.

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