Free Range or Value eggs?

competitionscafe

They also do Burford Brown eggs - brown ones which almost look like chocolate eggs! http://www.clarencecourt.co.uk/burford.asp

Patchwork_Quilt

We have Mr T's organic eggs but since its so expensive I am buying fewer of them.

Last year, I swapped a bunch of beetroot for 6 free-range eggs from my next door but one 'neighbour' at the allotment. I'm hoping this might happen again.

sistercas

sorryusernamesgone wrote: »

I worked at an egg packing station for a while, collected the eggs from the conveyor belt, straight from the hens and put on large trolleys which were stored in a chiller for up to 2 weeks sometimes longer, then went down the packing station to go into relevant egg boxes, depending on which store they were for.

The eggs were battery, barn and free range.

The only difference between them on the supermarket shelf is the boxes.

In the packing stations a buzzer sounds and the conveyor stops and someone changes the boxes over from say battery egg boxes to free range. The buzzer sounds again and the conveyor starts up, same eggs coming along, all going into free range boxes now.

So never buy free range eggs from a supermarket, cos they're probably battery eggs.

If you want free range buy from a farm at the gate or from someone who keeps their own poultry.

:eek: :eek: OMG I had no idea that it would be like that, i do buy my eggs from a local farm shop but sometimes i get them from Mr T because its more convenient I am shocked

Happyroly

competitionscafe wrote: »

Are they the Clarence Court ones? I love the colour of those but my local branch no longer sells them.


http://www.clarencecourt.co.uk/legbar.asp

We get these from Asda. Great eggs!

mhagster

£1.45 for 1/2 dozen at farm shop. they are lovely. Again I wouldn't buy supermarket ones now.

Ben84

silvercharming wrote: »

That packing station was breaking the law big style! You should be able to tell by the printing on the egg from a supermarket what kind of egg it is. 0 = organic, 1 = free range, 2 = barn, 3 = cage. If they are printing codes on eggs incorrectly or packaging them incorrectly it is FRAUD. Are you sure the buzzer didn't signify that a different source of eggs was coming down the conveyer, rather than just 'it's time to change boxes'?!

As I understand it, eggs can be 'downgraded', for example free range sold as barn or battery, but not 'upgraded'. You might at first wonder why retailers would do this, but it does happen sometimes. Retailers don't want to run out of cheap eggs and lose customers who will only buy them, so they'll substitute if needed. One of the reasons they don't make this well known is because it would mean admitting they can sell free range eggs for much lower prices than they do.

This might be the case here, but then I'm sure some eggs do get illegally upgraded too.

Anyway, I do buy free range eggs. Usually from the co-op who sell them for about £1.10 for six. However, sainsburys sell big boxes of fifteen for £2 now, so I may start buying them and splitting the boxes with a friend.

I stopped buying battery eggs for the obvious reasons, but also because many of the battery eggs are from chickens who are fed dye to make their yolks yellow. The concept of this bright yellow yolk thing seems to be convincing people that they're better somehow. Healthier even. Anyway, I don't see why I should be eating this dye. There is no benefit to me. Like most fake dyes it's added for the benefit of the retailer to improve the look and feel of their goods without actually using better ingredients or production methods.

santiago_2

one of my biggest supermarket spends is on free range eggs so i would be really put out if they turned out to be from battery hens.

frivolous_fay

competitionscafe wrote: »

Are they the Clarence Court ones? I love the colour of those but my local branch no longer sells them.


http://www.clarencecourt.co.uk/legbar.asp

Ocado (so presumably Waitrose) have these.
O/H keeps ordering them, (at a premium!) we're still hoping to get some that are something other than green :rolleyes: Moneysaving, my bum!

EssexHebridean

Free range only here - has been for years. We go without rather than buy battery eggs now. I have to admit that one thing that has made me mad reading this thread is the number of people saying "Oh I have to buy battery eggs but I try not to think of the poor hens" - if you're going to buy them, what is the point of not acknowledging the appalling conditions the birds are kept in to provide the eggs at such a low price? It is perfectly possible to live without eggs in your diet, so if it makes you feel guilty, why not go without or buy the occasional box of FR as a treat?

We buy from the farmers market - our supplier does boxes of "seconds" - eggs that are slightly mis-shapen or odd colours, sizes etc. We usually pay £1.50 per dozen. If he doesn't have the seconds then it's about £2.20 per dozen.

As for the suggestion regarding the packing stations fraudulently passing on battery eggs as free range, I'm afraid I find the idea extremely implausible. It seems very unlikely that any packing station owner would be prepared to risk not only loss of his livelihood if the fraud was discovered (as it undoubtedly would be in this day and age - thankfully not everyone working in an environment with this sort of con going on would pretend it wasn't happening - without doubt it would be reported to the media if not the trading standards people) but also the risk of going to prison.

sillyvixen

i only buy free range- but i dont use alot of eggs usually i only use them for baking and try to use them up for baking before they go out of date. i tend to buy about 4 half dozen packs a year.