A few years back I briefly thought that a rich yolk color was a quality signal, ... | Hacker News

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philipkglass on Feb 5, 2025 | parent | context | favorite | on: Eggs US – Price – Chart

A few years back I briefly thought that a rich yolk color was a quality signal, until I found that additives could produce that color cheaply. The color comes from dietary carotenoids [1]. Companies like BASF sell carotenoid feed additives that producers can employ to get a yolk color as rich as desired:

https://nutrition.basf.com/global/en/animal-nutrition/our-pr...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenoid

eric-hu on Feb 6, 2025 [–]

I wouldn't be surprised if you were correct in your belief and that this became a case of Goodhart's Law when implemented in the egg industry.

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