Japanese Rice-Fed Chickens Allegedly Lay White-Yolk Eggs

By Spooky on September 23rd, 2024 Category: Foods

Photos of white-yolk boiled eggs have gone viral on Japanese social media, with thousands of people asking whether they are real or just digitally altered.

It all started with an X (Twitter) post by Tsuda Junko, the editor-in-chief of the online magazine Design no Hikidashi, featuring a photo of a boiled egg cut in half. It doesn’t sound like the most exciting post ever, but it ended up going viral for a very intriguing reason – the cooked yolk was about as white as the egg white around it. Junko himself expressed his astonishment, claiming he had heard about this variety of Okinawa eggs with white yolk but never imagined it could be this white.

Photo: @tsudajunko/X

Junko’s post didn’t offer any information as to the origin of the eggs or what makes their yolk turn pure white when boiled, but after his post went viral, one X user explained that the eggs are known as ‘Shirotama’ and they come from the Nakamura Horticultural Farm in Itoman City, Okinawa, also known as the southernmost chicken farm in Japan.

As for the unusual yolk color, it is allegedly obtained by supplementing the chicken’s regular feed with rice, which causes the yolk to turn white when cooked. The eggs are most often used to make white Omurice (rice omelet) and white tamagoyaki.

Photo: @Ritta_wander/X

In case you’re interested, white-yolk eggs are reportedly sold regularly in the egg section of the Itoman Farmer’s Market.

A few years ago, we also wrote about an Indian farm where chickens laid eggs with bright green yolks, in case you’re interested.