How you are misled by free-range eggs in the supermarket
The difference between barn, free-range and organic eggs has everything to do with the welfare of the hens that lay the eggs. But if you think you’re doing the right thing by buying free-range eggs at the supermarket, you’re in for a disappointment. And that image and text on the box of organic eggs?
The chicken and the egg have been a hot topic for a while now. No, not necessarily because of the question of which came first. Rather because of battery eggs and unfair trading practices. But there is also plenty going on around barn, free-range and organic eggs.
Nationwide housing order for poultry
The latter three are legally protected terms. So they cannot simply be printed on the packaging of an egg carton. And yet we are being seriously misled in the supermarket when we buy eggs. Take, for example, the texts and images on free-range egg packaging. Many of these packages suggest a ‘free and happy outdoor life’ for laying hens, while in recent years the chickens have been required to stay indoors for the vast majority of the time.
The nationwide housing order for poultry was only lifted last Tuesday (26 March 2024). But this does not apply to all animals.
Free-range chickens?
Free-range chickens were required to remain indoors for months because of the ongoing bird flu outbreak. Many free-range chickens have never even been outside during their entire lives, although countless free-range egg cartons suggest that they have. The Albert Heijn cartons of free-range eggs still state that chickens can move freely outdoors in the open air and that “woods and bushes provide shelter”. On the cartons of Blije Kip eggs, a chicken dances in a field and it says that the chickens can happily go outside “whenever they want”.
And that is while a third of all Dutch laying hens are still subject to regional housing orders. This means that one out of every three laying hens in the Netherlands is still not allowed outside. Food watchdog Foodwatch is therefore launching a campaign against misleading packaging for free-range eggs. It demands that the packaging be adjusted as soon as a housing order is in place and is taking the matter to the Dutch Advertising Code Committee.
‘Indoor eggs’
A housing order deprives free-range chickens of more than 90% of their living space. It is therefore remarkable that eggs from chickens kept indoors may be sold indefinitely as ‘free-range’ eggs, even during prolonged periods of housing restrictions. In fact, you are eating ‘indoor eggs’—shouldn’t that simply be stated on the carton? At least then, as a consumer, you would know what you are buying, which would be fairer. And you could decide for yourself whether you want to choose them.
Organic eggs
If you buy eggs at the supermarket, organic eggs should be the best choice when it comes to animal welfare. They not only have more square metres of outdoor space than free-range chickens, but they are also better off inside their barns. For example, they can rest indoors on perches, and the surface they walk on is nice and soft. Organic chickens are also given fewer antibiotics than barn and free-range chickens.
These cartons are misleading too
In its complaints, Foodwatch is also including misleading packaging for organic eggs. Europe has long allowed the term ‘organic’ to remain in place despite a prolonged housing order. These cartons also mislead consumers about the chickens’ freedom during a housing order, such as Lidl’s Bio Organic carton, which shows a vast flower-filled meadow where the chickens roam.
Read also:
- 11 common mistakes when preparing eggs
- So brown and white eggs are not the same
- It’ll shock you: this is how many eggs chickens are ‘supposed’ to lay per year
