Biofortified orange corn increases xanthophyll density and yolk pigmentation in egg yolks from laying hens

Plant breeding has developed corn genotypes with grain higher in levels of carotenoids. Dietary consumption of specific carotenoids by humans has been associated with improved eye health, notably with some protection against age-related macular degeneration. Increasing dietary sources of macular carotenoids in the standard American diet might be accomplished by using high carotenoid Orange Corn in poultry diets to increase macular carotenoid concentrations in egg yolks. Three hundred sixty laying hens (Novogen White) were fed three different diets over 31 days. Each diet had six replicates of 20 hens housed in enrichable colony cages. The only difference was the type of corn included - white, yellow, and orange, in order to assess the impact of each type of corn on egg production, yolk pigmentation, and carotenoid deposition. This study assessed yolk color and carotenoid densities using a portable colorimeter and the DSM YolkFan, and by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on eggs from the feeding study and on 43 cartons of 12 eggs commercially available and produced in various production settings: conventional cage, cage-free, cage-free organic, free-range/pasture, and free-range/pasture organic. Yolks from hens fed with the Orange Corn diet produced eggs with higher (P < 0.01) DSM yolk color (6 to 10) and total xanthophylls (23.5 to 35.3 μg/g of egg yolk) compared to the yellow diet (5 to 6 DSM and 12.3 to 17.7 μg/g xanthophylls) and white diet (1 to 2 DSM and 2.5 to 3.0 μg/g xanthophylls). Egg yolks reached a maximum xanthophyll accumulation with the Orange Corn diet (35.3 μg/g of egg yolk) after twelve days of treatment and maintained steady levels at subsequent time points. In general, xanthophyll levels in yolks from the Orange Corn diet were superior (30–61% higher) to any of the commercial egg brands, suggesting that feeding high carotenoid Orange Corn increases xanthophyll density in eggs.