Free-range eggs are growing in popularity, as more consumers want eggs from hens who have been allowed to live a more “normal” life. But according to The Los Angeles Times, a new study found that cage-free eggs may not be free of harmful industrial pollutants.

A Taiwanese study found that the eggs contain much higher levels of industrial pollutants than eggs laid by caged hens. The researchers focused on two types of pollutants, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (known collectively as PCCD/Fs), which are released into the environment by municipal waste incinerators, factories and other industrial sources. These chemicals have caused cancer, liver damage, problems with the skin and nervous system, reproductive problems and other undesirable effects in animals.

Researchers also found that free range eggs had a toxic equivalency quotient that was 5.7 higher than that of caged eggs. And the problem isn’t just in Asia; studies in Europe made similar findings.

Why does this happen? The researchers believe the contaminants are found in the areas where free-range hens roam. Studies have found the chemicals in “feedstuffs, soil, plants, worms and insects,” they wrote. The soil on free-range farms is partly to blame.

And just FYI, the study wasn’t funded by the commercial egg-laying industry.

Photo: JustOrganic