Pasture-raised eggs, explained
Cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised — the labels are not interchangeable.
Aziza Kitchen · 30 July 2026
Egg labelling in India is loosely regulated, which makes the terms on the carton easy to misread.
The ladder
Cage eggs come from birds in battery cages. Cage-free means the birds are indoors but not caged — often still densely housed. Free-range implies some outdoor access, though the amount is rarely specified. Pasture-raised means the birds spend most of the day outdoors on rotated grass with room to forage.
Why it shows up in the yolk
Foraging birds eat insects and greens, and that changes the fat profile of the egg — more omega-3, more vitamin E, and the deeper orange yolk that people associate with a better egg.
What we buy
We source pasture-raised eggs from small farms within a few hours of the kitchen, and we would rather change the menu than drop to cage eggs when supply is tight.
