Are you a lover of eggs? you have to read this.

Do you ever get troubled like me often times when you crack your egg open and you find a little brown spot floating on the yolk?

So what exactly ARE those little brown spots you sometimes find floating in an egg?

Those brownish or reddish specks you’ll occasionally find are deemed “meat spots” or “blood spots.”

Eggs destined for the grocery store shelf are “candled” by a machine to check the inside for any defects this is why you’ll rarely come across a meat spot in a store bought egg.

Backyard chicken owners can candle their eggs as well, but it’s not a necessity.

Contrary to popular belief, a meat spot in an egg does not mean that it has been fertilized.

It’s actually a little malfunction on the part of the hen.

According to the Egg Safety Center:
(Meat spots or blood spots)are caused by the rupture of a blood vessel on the yolk surface when it’s being formed or by a similar accident in the wall of the oviduct… Eggs with blood spots and meat spots are fit to eat.

I’m glad they have been deemed “fit to eat,” because although I will sometimes dig out the larger spots, I usually just ignore the smaller ones and scramble them up.

And here is another interesting little tidbit. The presence of visible blood spots can actually mean the egg is fresh.

According to the Eggland’s Best website:
As an egg ages, the yolk takes up water from the albumen to dilute the blood spot so, in actuality, a blood spot indicates that the egg is fresh.

Perhaps another reason you don’t often see blood spots in store-bought cartons is because those eggs are usually several weeks old by the time they make it home to your refrigerator…

I can’t seem to find a concrete reason as to why some chickens lay eggs with meat spots and others don’t… Some sources say that older hens are more inclined to, while others say it’s reserved for younger birds. And some websites refer to it as a genetic defect or a dietary problem. Perhaps this is an issue I will have to dig into deeper in the future…

So next time you crack an egg from your backyard flock and find a little speck floating in the bowl, don’t be alarmed. If you like, you can remove it, or just ignore it.

Enjoy the little irregularities in your homegrown food and allow it to remind you of the valuable work you put into getting it on your table.