Eggs play key role vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D enriched eggs – thanks to changes in free range laying hen diets – have hit supermarket shelves as part of a major new brand refresh from Noble Foods.
It follows research by scientists at the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Newcastle University and Innovate UK, working with Noble Foods, which demonstrated that enriched diets can increase the vitamin D content in eggs by more than 40% across a range of production systems.
This could go a long way towards helping people in the UK to consume the recommended intake of 10mcg for most of the population highlighted in a 2016 report by Public Health England.
Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption and bone growth and while this is not generally an issue in the summer, due to sunlight, few manage to reach the daily intake level in winter, leaving many of us deficient.
The new Happy Egg Co proposition helps consumers increase their dietary vitamin D intake by offering a range which contains 28% more vitamin D per 100g than standard eggs.
Stuart Agnew, Noble Foods category and marketing director, said the vitamin D is rapidly absorbed by the hen and passed to their eggs: “Eggs are one of the very few foods in our daily diet which naturally contain vitamin D so we are really excited to be able to pass even more of this fantastic health benefit on to consumers that they can eat and live better.”
Tesco is promoting the eggs in an intriguing way online: “Our girls are fed on a diet rich in vitamin D, which means 2 large Happy Eggs (68g) naturally contain 95% of your daily need, essential for growing and maintaining strong bones.”
Noble Foods is to support the initiative with digital campaign and exclusive partnerships with Park Run and the National Schools Partnership.
Join 31,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the poultry sector, three times a week.
