Egg truths & myths

We eat more than 12 billion eggs per year in the UK (that’s 197 per person).

If you care about welfare, check labels on your processed foods (cakes, quiches, pasta) to find brands that use free-range eggs.

Eggs keep best at a constant temperature, so in their cardboard box on the middle shelf is best (or the kitchen counter if colder than 20C).

Egg shells are porous and absorb odours: another good reason to keep them in their box.

If you can never get boiled eggs right, try steaming them instead – six or seven minutes in a metal basket steamer.

Mexico is the world’s most eggloving country, followed by Japan, Ukraine and Denmark.

The odds of cracking open a triple-yolk hen’s egg are 25 million to one.

The fastest three-egg omelette in the Guinness Book of Records was made in under 15 seconds on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen (2015).

An egg contains every vitamin except C, as well as folate, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, selenium and many other micronutrients.

All the fat’s in the yolk, but so is most of the goodness.

Eggs’ cholesterol content is not linked to heart disease, so from your heart’s point of view you can eat as many as you like.

Eggs don’t make you constipated but they are devoid of dietary fibre so don’t fill up on them in place of high-fibre foods.