Between January 2008 and December 2018, U.S. consumers’ retail table egg expenditures shifted towards eggs marketed as cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised, organic, free of antibiotics or hormones, or third-party humane certified. In that 11-year span, eggs purchased with those various animal welfare and treatment claims saw increases in market share (by value) of between 4% and 32%. The share for expenditures on eggs labeled as free-range, for example, jumped from zero to 20% during that period. By December 2018, one-fifth of retail table egg sales were for eggs labeled as organic, and about one-third of table egg expenditures were for eggs claiming to have no added antibiotics or hormones. Meanwhile, the share spent on white-shelled eggs with no animal welfare or treatment claims decreased during that period from 41% to 27%.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service
To view source article, visit: https://ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details?pubid=110817
Organic & Non-GMO Insights April 2025