NUTRITIVE VALUE OF EGGS | KNOW THE NUTRIENTS OF THE EGGS YOU CONSUME

Egg is one of the most complete and versatile food available, it consist of approximately 10% shell, 58% white and 32% yolk. Neither the colour of the shell nor that of the yolk affects the eggs nutritive value. (lesson 2006).

The average egg provides approximately 313 kilojoules of energy of which 80% comes form the yolk.


The nutritive content of an average laid egg (containing 50g of edible egg) include 6.3g protein, 0.6g carbohydrate, 5.0g fat (this include 0.21g cholesterol), Egg protein is of high quality and easily digestible (paschal et al., 2008; Menezes, 2009) .

Vitamins: Egg contain every vitamin except vitamin C. They are particularly high in vitamin A, D, B₁₂ and B₁, Eggs, are important vehicle to complete the essential vitamin supply to human population.

Minerals: Eggs are good source of minerals such as iron, and phosphorus and also supply calcium, copper, iodine, magnesium, manganese potassium, sodium, zinc, chloride and sulphur. All these minerals are present in organic chetates, highly bioavialble in the edible part of the eggs (Brugalli et al., 1998).

Two criteria for classifying a country as a developed or less developed are per capital income and per caput animal protein consumption. For example, Heil et al., (1997) gave per caput egg consumption as follow;

Countries           per caput egg consumption (tonne)

USA                               230

Malaysia                         230

Brazil                              200

South Africa                   175

China                             150

Indonesia                        55

Nigeria                            26