Eggs produced by hens raised in cages can be distinguished from those
produced in barns from the differences in lipid content, say researchers
in the UK, who made their discovery using non-targeted metabonomics.To
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In
the murky world of food fraud, the humble egg might seem an unlikely
target but there are big profits to be made by mislabelling eggs laid by
caged birds as those laid by hens brought up freely in barns. They are
still not free range but they have more freedom than caged hens.
According to EU rules, chickens in barns should be kept at a maximum
density of 9 birds/m2 of usable area. This compares to the more
congested conditions of caged chickens which must be allowed to occupy
an area of at least 750 cm2, of which 600 cm2 must be usable, allowing
the birds to perform natural behaviour like nesting, roosting and
perching.

Although barn hens are freer to move about, they are
still susceptible to disease so are given antibiotics regularly, as well
as hormones to increase egg production, the same as caged hens.
Nevertheless, with the focus of consumers on animal welfare, many are
willing to pay more for food that has been raised under better
conditions, so barn eggs can command a a higher price than those laid in
cages.

Several analytical methods have proposed to distinguish
between cage and barn eggs, based on the content of cholesterol, fatty
acids and various elements. Each of these methods was aimed at specific
classes of components in the egg. Researchers in the UK have taken a
different approach by applying a non-targeted metabonomics method to see
if there were any differences in the profiles of small molecules across
all classes.
David Thompson, Amy Johnson and Kate Sidwick from Keele
University, Vasil Pirgozliev from Harper Adams University, Newport, and
Anthony Edge from Liverpool University used LC/MS on a medium
resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer as the screening technique.
They analysed extracts of the yolks of fresh eggs from six caged hens
and six barn hens, separating the compounds present on a reversed-phase
HPLC column for analysis by electrospray ionisation ion positive-ion
mode. Previous studies had revealed that there were few compounds in egg
yolk that were susceptible to negative ionisation.