Time for fresh approach to egg labelling Buyers want clarity before shelling out

SHOPPERS buying eggs are being confronted with a mass of confusing information and descriptions, including terms which do not quite mean what they seem.

Consumers pay anything between 7.8p and 26.5p per medium egg and between 6.7p and 30p for a large egg. More than half of all eggs sold are from battery chickens, 38 per cent free range, with 5 per cent labelled "barn".

Add into the mix the terms "organic", "welfare friendly", "Lion-marked", "fresh" (including country fresh and farm fresh) and "Class A" and there is every opportunity to spend more time choosing an egg than actually boiling one.

Consumers are being encouraged to make buying decisions on the basis of wording that is not always what it seems.

The first thing to note is that egg boxes carry a label explaining the codes on the individual eggs. The code gives a number indicating stocking conditions (for example 3 means cage eggs) then the country of origin and finally the farm code. As you've opened the box anyway to check if any of the eggs are broken, have a look at the eggs themselves.

Eggs with a Lion mark mean that eggs must be from vaccinated chicken flocks and be traceable. They will also be stamped with "best before" dates. As for the boxes themselves, not all the information on them is particularly useful. "Class A" sounds good until you realise that Class B eggs are not sold directly to the public - they are eggs which are broken out and pasteurised for use by the food industry.

"Fresh" means the egg has reached the shelf within the maximum allowable time. An egg that is not fresh should not be on sale. "Farm fresh" is unlikely to mean anything unless you happen to be buying eggs in a farm shop. Even then some of them may be bought in from elsewhere.

In recent years some eggs have been marketed as a useful source of Omega 3 fatty acids. The claims are true but the amounts are such that nobody should regard eggs as a prime source - there is probably the same amount in the vegetable oil in which you fry your egg. The presence of Omega 3s may be down to clover-rich pastures. It may equally be fish oil supplements in the hens' diet.

And what of the information that allows the consumer to decide whether the eggs are produced by happy hens?

Again there is the potential for confusion.

Pictures of roaming hens or farmyard or country scenes can be deceiving. Eggs which are given the Lion mark cannot be sold in a box showing such scenes if they are caged birds; however, other eggs can have these misleading images on the box.

"Barn" eggs rarely come from hens that wander around an airy straw-filled shed but instead, as one researcher put it, from "a sea of hens sitting on the floor of a barn".

Where producers claim animal welfare accreditation for their flocks, your first port of call should be the list of standards on the website of the accrediting organisation.

A free range hen must have continuous access to the open air throughout the day. However, some flocks are so large that hens may find it difficult to get outside.

Many producers of free range eggs can also achieve organic status though, again, the standards set vary depending on the organic accrediting body. The Soil Association has some of the highest standards but there is limited availability of these eggs in Scotland.

With such an array of sales terms it is inevitable that consumers will be confused. Egg producers might do well to introduce a little more transparency and uniformity to the descriptions they use. If not, we will be urging regulators to start lifting the lid on how eggs are marketed.

• Mary Lawton is food policy manager for the Scottish Consumer Council.