Articles

Rabbi Dovid Cohen
cRc Administrative Rabbinic Coordinator

In white eggs, blood spots are rather rare. They occur about once in every 500 eggs, and if the eggs are “candled” (as most eggs are), the end user will usually only find one blood spot in every 5,000 eggs. In brown eggs, true blood spots are also rare, but the likelihood is 2 to 4 times as high as for white eggs.
However, brown eggs have a relatively high incidence of something known as “protein spots” which are often mistaken for blood spots. Blood spots are red, have a symmetrical shape (round, oval, or lines), and tend to be found in the yellow of the egg, while protein spots are brown or off-white, are irregularly shaped in a way that is inconsistent with a drop of blood, and are usually found in the white of the egg. These protein
spots – which are more noticeable in brown eggs than white ones because pigment from the brown shell ”leaks” into the egg and collects at the protein spots – are permitted.