Unscrambling the data

Free-range, natural, organic, cage-free. How good can eggs get, anyway? And why are restaurants obsessed about it?

- Christalle Fernandes

"Eggs are like a magical capsule," says Manjunath Marappan. "No other food on Earth packs in as much nutrition within just 50 grams." Marappan, 42, is the co-founder of the decade-old Happy Hens Farm, India's oldest commercial producer of freerange eggs. They partner with small farmers across Nashik, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and many of the 20,000 eggs they produce every day end up on India's trendiest menus.

Eggs, urban India is starting to realise, aren't all alike. Brown and white shells aren't any indicator of quality. And good ones - tastier, produced ethically, carrying more nutrients - are worth paying three times more for. Here's why.

The chicken comes first

Tasleem Ahmad, the business head of 57-year-old Keggfarms, says that India's egg production falls broadly into two categories: Commercial and natural. Most eggs stocked at supermarkets and grocery stores are commercial, which means the hens that laid them were kept in closed cages, with no access to light, fresh air or movement for much of their lives. The birds are typically fed cheap fish meal and limestone powder to boost the nutritional output of their eggs. As a result, they're more stressed, so they're given anti-stress medicines and antibiotics, which they pass on to the eggs, and ultimately to you.