Buying a carton of eggs from the grocery store usually doesn't pack many surprises — other than the . However, if you went home and cracked open an egg to find its contents are clear or white instead of yellow, you might be a bit thrown off. As it turns out, you shouldn't judge a batch of eggs by its yolk color (or lack thereof).

Although you might think you need to toss out the whole carton, clear-yolked eggs are actually perfectly safe to eat. ( .) An egg's yolk color depends on the diet of the chicken that laid it in the first place.

Plants pigments called xanthophylls give the yolk its color. While the average hen is usually fed a diet of yellow corn, resulting in yellow yolks, eggs with white yolks may have come from a hen that's been fed white corn or another less pigmented feed like sorghum. This variation in yolk color has no impact on the nutritional value of the egg.

What different egg yolk colors mean Now that you know clear and white egg yolks are safe to consume, you might be asking, "What about other colors and those ?" Sometimes, egg yolks can come out dark orange, pale yellow, or even in doubles. Each of the aforementioned is also safe to eat. Interestingly, each color could mean something different in regard to the chicken's diet.

An orange yolk could come from a free range chicken with a diet that might be heavy in carotenoids, pigments that produce bright red, orange, and yellow hues in plants, fruits, and vegetables, resulting in a deeper tint. On the ot.