Why U.S. Eggs? From Atlanta to Dubai to Hong Kong, buyers know about the "egg-ceptional" qualities of U.S. eggs and egg products. Not only is the U.S. the world's second-largest egg-producing country, it also produces eggs of the highest quality in the world. The American egg industry maintains strict quality control and sanitation measures that are more stringent than is required by law. Immediately after they are laid, eggs are washed, sanitized, graded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and packed. After packing, U.S. eggs are refrigerated throughout the shipping and marketing process. As you see through this website, you can easily see why U.S. eggs rank among the highest in the world for distinguished quality and assured safety.

U.S. Eggs F rom the time the egg is laid to the time the egg reaches your consumer, a very high standard of quality is maintained. When eggs enter the processing facility, they are immediately placed on a conveyer belt for washing. Each egg is washed thoroughly with adequate amounts of detergent-sanitizer, and then rinsed. Dirt is removed without damaging the shells or altering the quality. After washing, eggs are also sanitized, graded, and packed. After the eggs are candled, which is the process of using light to help determine the quality of an egg, they are immediately moved to cooling facilities and ready for distribution. For retail sales, U.S. eggs are packaged for display and sale in cartons that each contain 12 eggs. Shell and yolk color may vary. However, these variations have no effect on the quality, nutrition or cooking characteristics. The yolk color is influenced by the hen’s diet. Basic U.S. hen egg layer diets are formulated by using the highest quality yellow corn, soybean meal, alfalfa meal and vitamins. Hens fed these diets lay eggs with medium-yellow yolks. Color of the shell is also not a measure of quality since color can vary with the breed of hens and the diet they are fed. Pigment in the outer layer of the shell will range from white to deep brown. Breeds with white feathers and white ear lobes lay white eggs. Breeds with red feathers and red ear lobes produce brown eggs. Eggs are marketed based on grade, size and quality standards that are set and monitored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Every Body Every Age Life Stage Foods Eggs Deliver Necessary Nutrition As a natural source of many vitamins and minerals, eggs have something for everyone and can be a valuable asset in the development of food products to meet consumer needs. Eggs are a naturally nutrient-dense food, containing varying amounts of 13 essential nutrients. In particular, they are an 'excellent' source of choline and selenium, and a 'good' source of high-quality protein, vitamin B12, phosphorus and riboflavin. These nutrients are important to the entire population with select nutrients attractive to specific demographics. For example, the high-quality protein in eggs helps kids grow and gives them energy to stay focused. Eggs are an excellent source of choline, a nutrient making headlines regarding its role in fetal brain development. For active adults, egg protein builds muscle, provides sustained energy and satisfies hunger longer. Eggs help aging Baby Boomers optimize muscle function and help prevent sarcopenia, or loss of lean muscle tissue. Depending on consumer concerns or preferences, such as convenience, nutrition or taste, formulators can meet consumer demands by delivering new food products based on egg ingredients. For information about health and nutrition topics, visit the Egg Nutrition Center at www.enc-online.org

Egg Nutrient Chart Nutrient Content of a Large Egg Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 2010. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 23. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page: http://www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata Discrepencies between nutrient levels in the white+yolk vs. the whole egg are due to sampling error.

Bacon, Spinach and Sweet Onion Quiche Ingredients & Directions Crust Preheat oven to 350˚F. Whisk together flour, thyme, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk together olive oil and water, and pour over dry ingredients, stirring with a fork until moistened. Press crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Crimp the edge or flatten with the tines of a fork. All-purpose flour 2 cups Chopped fresh thyme leaves 2 Tbsp sugar 1 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Baking powder 3/8 tsp Olive oil 7 Tbsp Cold water 1/4 cup INGREDIENTS: Filling Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in skillet; discard any remaining drippings. Crumble bacon, and set aside. Add onion to drippings in skillet, and saute over medium heat about 8 minutes or until tender and golden brown. Add spinach, and cook, tossing frequently, just until spinach wilts. Spread spinach mixture over crust in pie plate; top with crumbled bacon. Whisk together eggs, milk, mustard, salt, and paprika. Pour egg mixture over spinach layer in pie plate. Crumble goat cheese over the top of the quiche. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until set in the center. To check for doneness, just use an oven mitt to give the oven rack a shake, and you’ll know the quiche is done when it no longer jiggles in the center. Remove from oven, cool slightly, then cut into 6 wedges and serve.

Product & Industry Opportunities Products & Industry Opportunities The functional attributes of egg products have beneficial uses in a variety of industries, both food and non-food related. Such properties as emulsification, coagulation, adhesion, and binding are critical to the success of many of the food products we eat every day. Eggs provide other functions such as calcium and protein to animal feed, whites in cosmetics, yolks in shampoos and conditioners, and as a culture medium in science and research. Industry BAKING Product Usage: Breads, pastries, custards, cakes, cookies Functional Rationale: Adds richness, increases volume, and improves machine flexibility DAIRY Product Usage: Ice cream, frozen desserts Functional Rationale: Improves texture, decreases melting point, eliminates crystallization CONFECTIONERY Product Usage: Bars, fondants, fillings Functional Rationale: Improves interior texture, stabilizes, adds richness and flavor SAUES Product Usage: Mayonnaise, salad dressings, dips, and prepared foods Functional Rationale: Binds sauces and emulsifies mixtures of oil and water MEAL REPLACEMENTS Product Usage: Energy bars for active and elderly Functional Rationale: Provides excellent protein source, as well as other functional benefits BEVERAGES Product Usage: Pourable yogurts, dietary drinks, and alcoholic beverages Functional Rationale: Adds creamy texture and clarifies certain wines and juices PREPARED FOODS Product Usage: An ingredient in frozen and prepared entrées and side dishes Functional Rationale: Improves texture and freeze/thaw microwave capabilities NUTRACEUTICALS Product Usage: A protein supplement and a source for extraction of beneficial substances Functional Rationale: Used for the extraction of lysozyme and other substances, such as yolk lecithin and sialic acid Baking FOSTINGS Product Usage: Thickens frostings and fillings Functional Rationale: Coagulates and creates firm, smooth base BREADS Product Usage: Standard breads and buns Functional Rationale: Used as an egg wash to brown the crust and for flavor and structure in specialty breads and rolls SWEET GOODS Product Usage: Egg custard fillings and tarts Functional Rationale: Gels filling and adds color and richness to mass, excellent emulsifier CAKES Product Usage: Cakes of all sorts Functional Rationale: Aeration adds volume, height, and builds ingredients into product matrix. Provide structure COOKIES & SPECIALTY ITEMS Product Usage: Meringues and other items where lighter texture is required Functional Rationale: Allows for aeration of baked goods. Provides structural benefits MUFFINS & POPOVERS Product Usage: Unique pastry effect obtainable only through use of eggs Functional Rationale: Binds and produces desirable texture and mouthfeel. Aeration builds volume FROZEN PRODUCTS Product Usage: Frozen dough and other items to control crystallization Functional Rationale: Creates desirable characteristics in reheating and baking HEALTHY SNACK BARS Product Usage: Protein-rich meal replacement bar Functional Rationale: One of the highest-quality protein sources available Other Industries COSMETICS Product Usage: The white is a popular ingredient for facial masks. The yolk is used in shampoos and conditioners. SCIENCE Product Usage: Both yolk and white are excellent culture media for laboratory growth of microorganisms. ANIMAL FEED & PET FOOD Product Usage: Ground dried shells are fed to laying hens as a source of calcium and protein. Egg is used to feed laboratory animals when a protein reference is required. Yolks and whites are used in pet foods. EGG PROTEINS Product Usage: Lysozyme is an excellent antibacterial agent in all foods. Avidin-biotin technology is used in medical diagnostic applications like immunology, gene probes, and histopathology. VACCINE MANUFACTURE Product Usage: Eggs provide an excellent medium for the growth of viruses for making vaccines.

Nutrients In Eggs Eggs are a nutrient goldmine! One large egg has varying amounts of 13 essential vitamins and minerals, high-quality protein, all for 70 calories. While egg whites contain some of the eggs’ high-quality protein, riboflavin and selenium, the majority of an egg’s nutrient package is found in the yolk. Nutrients such as: Vitamin D, critical for bone health and immune function. Eggs are one of the only foods that naturally contain vitamin D. Choline, essential for normal functioning of all cells, but particularly important during pregnancy to support healthy brain development of the fetus. Lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that are believed to reduce the risk of developing cataracts and slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration, a disease that develops with age.

Registered Dietitian/Nutrition Today’s retail environment is full of nutrition labels, claims, profiling systems and much more. Helping consumers navigate their way through grocery aisles is an important job, and according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, many Americans are overweight and undernourished. They get too many calories but not enough nutrients each day. The Guidelines further state that the prevalence of obesity in the United States has doubled and in some cases tripled between the 1970s and 2008. What's in an egg? The Yolk: A Nutrient Goldmine

An Egg a Day is MORE Than Okay! Even though eggs are not the major contributor of cholesterol in the American diet, over the last 35 years eggs have become the visual icon of high cholesterol, both dietary and blood cholesterol, and many consumers have responded by limiting, or eliminating eggs from their diets. U.S. Department of Agriculture data show that meat, poultry and fi sh together account for nearly 45% of cholesterol intake, compared to under 36% for eggs. (1) Between 1970, when the public fi rst started hearing the diet-cholesterol message, to 1995, egg consumption decreased 24%, from 311 to 238 eggs per person per year. The message to limit dietary cholesterol had been so effective that recent surveys show that 45 to 50% of consumers considered dietary cholesterol “a serious health risk.” And since everyone seemed to replay the same nutritional messages, “less than 300 mg per day of dietary cholesterol and no more than 3 to 4 whole eggs a week,” consumers assumed that the recommendations must be not only science based but also proven safe and effective. Today as we are learning about many aspects of the more traditional conventional wisdom in nutrition, the proscriptions against eggs and dietary cholesterol are coming under increased scrutiny as new research not only questions the validity of old concepts but presents documented evidence that the old theories don’t hold up well to rigorous scrutiny. Today, as scientific investigation and statistical analytical methodologies have improved, research studies provide a more accurate perspective of the biological processes involved in diet-disease relationships. In fact, a 2007 observational study of 9,734 people conducted by researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, found no increased risk for stroke, ischemic stroke or coronary heart disease when subjects ate 6 or more eggs per week. The researchers concluded that “the lack of relationship between egg consumption and cardiovascular diseases may be attributable to lack of association between serum cholesterol and egg consumption”. (2) Over the years there have been numerous reports that egg consumption is not related to either plasma cholesterol levels or coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence. Epidemiological surveys across cultures, such as the Twenty Countries Study, (3) reported that dietary cholesterol and egg consumption were related to cardiovascular disease mortality using simple correlation analyses but, when multivariate analyses were included correcting for saturated fat calories, there were no relationships between CHD and either dietary cholesterol or egg intakes. Data from the Framingham Heart Study, (4), (5) the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) (6), the Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Trial (7), the Alpha-Tocopheral, Beta- Carotene Cancer Prevention Study,8 the Nurses’ Health Study,8 and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (8) all reported that dietary cholesterol intake was not related to either plasma cholesterol levels or CHD incidence. In 1999 Hu and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) an analysis of data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study on the relationships between weekly egg consumption and CHD and stroke incidences. (9) The Nurses’ Health Study included 80,082 nurses aged 34 to 59 years at study onset followed for 14 years (1980-1994) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study involved 37,851 males aged 40 to 75 years in 1986 and followed for 8 years (1986-1994). The investigators determined daily egg consumption from multiple food-frequency questionnaires and measured incidences of nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal CHD, and stroke in the two study populations. The investigators reported that after adjustments for age, smoking, and other potential CHD risk factors, there was no evidence for a significant relationship between egg consumption and risk of CHD or stroke in either men or women. The researchers concluded “that consumption of up to one egg per day is unlikely to have substantial overall impact on the risk of CHD or stroke among healthy men and women.” Using data from subgroup analyses, the authors noted an increased risk of CHD associated with higher egg consumption among study participants with diabetes (following an ad libitum diet) but not in those with hypercholesterolemia or excess body weight. The findings by Hu et al.9 add to an ever increasing body of evidence indicating a null relationship between egg consumption and CHD risk. The fact is that most industrialized countries have reviewed the experimental and epidemiological evidence and their nutrition experts determined that dietary cholesterol restrictions are unnecessary for a heart healthy diet. (10) In addition, studies are now showing that restricting eggs from the diet can have negative nutritional effects. The protein quality of eggs is the highest value in the supermarket, and it’s available at the lowest price. Eggs have high nutrient density providing 13 different vitamins and minerals in excess of the caloric contribution. Eggs are a source of biologically available lutein and zeaxanthin which help protect eyes against age related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. In addition, eggs are an excellent source of choline, an essential nutrient needed for fetal brain and memory development and prevention of neural tube defects. And what else is there in an egg which nature has included to optimize embryonic development?: cholesterol (Should eggs be considered nature’s original “functional food”?) And surely, if eggs increased the risk of CHD then countries with higher per capita egg consumption should have high rates of CHD. In fact, it turns out to be just the opposite. The countries with the highest per capita egg intakes are Japan #1, then Spain and France, countries with very low rates of CHD mortality compared to the USA. As the articles in this issue of Nutrition Realities show, there are many reasons to include eggs in a healthy diet. And for segments of the population who are at nutritional risk, the elderly, growing children, low income families, and those with serious illnesses, excluding an affordable, nutrient dense source of high quality protein and a variety of essential nutrients makes very little sense and is unjust. Our current understanding of the relationships between diet and CHD has moved beyond the simplistic view that dietary cholesterol equals blood cholesterol, and shifted towards an emphasis on saturated fats, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle in CHD risk. Consider, that by giving the public one less ineffective dietary issue to concentrate on it may actually increase their awareness of some of their more risky behaviors. Slowly but surely, and with an ever expanding body of scientifi c evidence, eggs are coming back to their rightful place in the American diet. And for all those people who have been avoiding a food they enjoy, this will be a valuable shift in the conventional wisdom which will allow them to again welcome eggs back into their heart healthy diet. REFERENCES: U.S. Department of Agriculture/Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, 190902004. Home Economics Research Report No. 57, February 2007. 1. Qureshi AI. Regular egg consumption does not increase the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases. Sci Monit, 2007, 13(1):CR1-8 Hegsted DM, Ausman LM. Diet, alcohol and coronary heart disease in men. J Nutr 1988;118:1184-1189. Millen BE, Franz MM, Quatromoni PA, et al. Diet and plasma lipids in women. Macronutrients and plasma total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol in women: The Framingham nutrition studies. J Clin Epidemiol 1996;49:657-663. Dawber TR, Nickerson RJ, Brand FN, Pool J. Eggs, serum cholesterol, and coronary heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr 1982;36:617-625. Tillotson JL, Bartsch GE, Gorder D, Grandits GA, Stamler J. Food group and nutrient intakes at baseline in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial. Am J Clin Nutr 1997;65(1) Suppl:228S-257S. Esrey KL, Joseph L, Grover SA. Relationship between dietary intake and coronary heart disease mortality: Lipid research clinics prevalence follow-up study. J Clin Epidemiol 1996;49:211-216. Pietinen P, Ascherio A, Korhonen P, et al. Intake of fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease in a cohort of Finnish men — The alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene cancer preventionstudy. Am J Epidemiol 1997;145:876-887. Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, et al. Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women. N Engl J Med 1997;337:1491-1499. Ascherio A, Rimm EB, Giovannucci EL, Spiegelman D, Stampfer M, Willett WC. Dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease in men: Cohort follow up study in the United States. BMJ 1996;313:84-90. Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB, et al. A prospective study of egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in men and women. JAMA 1999;281:1387-1394. Klein C, The Scientifi c Evidence and Approach Taken to Establish Guidelines for Cholesterol Intake In Australia, Canada, The United Kingdom and the United States, Life Science Research Offi ce, November 2006.

Functions ADHESIVE PROPERTIES Description: Adheres ingredients such as seeds and grains to food products. Application: Health bars, variety breads, snacks AERATION AND STRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT Description: Egg proteins create foam in products resulting in lighter and airier products. Application: Meringues, mousses, souffles, baked goods BINDING Description: Egg proteins provide the structure and coagulative properties to bind food products together. Application: Snack foods, meat products, prepared entrées BROWNING Description: Provides desirable brown color to baked products. Application: Rolls, buns, variety breads CLARIFICATION Description: Egg whites inhibit enzymatic browning and prevent cloudiness in beverages. Application: Wines, juices COAGULATION AND GELATION Description: Egg whites and yolk proteins change from a fluid state to gel. Application: Cakes, frostings, custards, surimi COATING Description: Locks in flavor and aroma. Application: Baked goods, snacks COLOR Description: Xanthophyll pigments in egg yolk contribute yellow color to many foods. Application: Baked products, noodles, custards CRYSTALLIZATION CONTROL Description: Egg white proteins prevent crystallization of sugar and promotes smoothness of chocolate. Application: Confections EMULSIFICATION Description: Phospholipids and lipoproteins serve as surface active agents stabilizing oil in water emulsions. Application: Salad dressings, sauces FINISH/GLOSS Description: Used universally in baking to improve product appearance. Egg wash gives surface gloss and shine. Application: Sweet breads, cookies, frostings FLAVOR Description: Carries and enhances some flavors, and imparts desirable egg flavor. Application: Custards, confections FREEZABILITY Description: Improves texture and acceptability of products going through freeze/thaw cycle. Application: Frozen doughs, microwavable food HUMECTANCY Description: Holds moisture in food products to help increase shelf life. Application: Variety breads, rolls INSULATION Description: Keeps products from turning soggy. Application: Breads, frozen doughs MOUTHFEEL IMPROVEMENT Description: Provides substantial body and smoothness to foods. Application: Variety breads, sweet goods, puddings pH Description: Stable pH. Application: Won’t disrupt food product formulations SHELF LIFE EXTENSION Description: Keeps starch molecules moist and fresh. Application: Commercial bread formulations TENDERIZATION Description: Tenderizes foods naturally giving a soft surface feel. Application: Soft breads, rolls TEXTURE IMPROVEMENT Description: Firms up the texture of food products and provides crumb improvement. Application: Rolls, light foods THICHENING Description: Thickens sauces and gravies, and adds body to achieve product improvement. Application: Sauces, toppings, prepared foods