UV light makes for more nutritious eggs

THE vitamin D content of eggs could be quadrupled simply by using lights, say scientists. A lack of the vitamin can result in brittle bones and an increased risk of respiratory diseases.

Eggs are a natural source of the vitamin, and now a team of nutritionists and agricultural scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg has found a new way to further increase their vitamin D content by exposing chickens to UV light.

After only three weeks of UV light exposure for six hours a day, the vitamin D content of the eggs increased three to four-fold.

The German researchers say this method could be put into practice in hen houses straight away to increase vitamin D consumption among the general human population. |