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Humans and their hominid relatives have consumed eggs for millions of years.[1] The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especially chickens. People in Southeast Asia began harvesting chicken eggs for food by 1500 BCE.[2] Eggs of other birds, such as ducks and ostriches, are eaten regularly but much less commonly than those of chickens. People may also eat the eggs of reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Fish eggs consumed as food are known as roe or caviar.
Hens and other egg-laying creatures are raised throughout the world, and mass production of chicken eggs is a global industry. In 2009, an estimated 62.1 million metric tons of eggs were produced worldwide from a total laying flock of approximately 6.4 billion hens.[3] There are issues of regional variation in demand and expectation, as well as current debates concerning methods of mass production. In 2012, the European Union banned battery husbandry of chickens.
- ^ Kenneth F. Kiple, A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization (2007), p. 22.
- ^ Peters, Joris; Lebrasseur, Ophélie; Irving-Pease, Evan K.; et al. (14 June 2022). "The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (24): e2121978119. Bibcode:2022PNAS..11921978P. doi:10.1073/pnas.2121978119. PMC 9214543. PMID 35666876.
- ^ Outlook for egg production Archived 15 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine WATT Ag Net – Watt Publishing Co