Let's talk about free-range eggs

[Jennifer13]

Actually, not to get all down on this, but there's been a fair bit of coverage lately about how there's more eggs labelled 'free range' than are actually produced. Most of the major egg producers (certified or no) have been caught out putting non-free range eggs in with their free range eggs when they don't have enough. It's not monitored, so it's a marketing exercise as much as anything.

RSPCA accreditation has been criticised in the past for not really being reliable. They did a documentary some years ago where animal activists went into a so-called RSPCA accredited facility to film the appalling conditions. The RSPCA is paid for their accreditation, which in my view constitutes a huge conflict of interest. One of the issues is that RSPCA is only taken to some facilities to accredit, but then, when the producer needs to top up the supplies, they just use any old eggs.

You have to also check for whether free range is actually ranging free, or kept in a barn, etc.

When we used to buy free range I would try and choose eggs from a local supplier, while I can't be sure they are really free range unless I take a drive out there, at least I'm avoiding the issues I just mentioned (and theoretically I could drive for an hour to go and check).

Then we switched to true free range - we got our own chickens! I love our girls, they're so low maintenance and watching them walk around the yard amusing themselves most of the time makes me feel really sorry for all the other chickens.

PS At the moment 'Australian certified organic' with the correct logo is the only accreditation that seems to be gaining momentum and has some assurance in terms of checking, audits, etc. And for the record, I do some work in this area, so I have looked into it a bit.

MrsB26: have a look at the Choice article from earlier this year about milk. Puts you off a lot of them, that's for sure! We buy organic milk too now, and I love that there are chunks of cream swimming in the milk when it comes out of the carton. Tastes much better too.