Save money buying free range eggs for the cost of 'battery' ones.

cronosoft

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but a thing that I have discovered over the past year or so, is that more often than not, eggs are mislabelled deliberately.

On the past three occasions that I have bought the cheapest eggs on sale from a supermarket, they have been labelled on the packaging as being 
from 'caged hens' (code 3), yet when I have examined them more closely, they were actually a higher grade than stated on the packaging.

On one occasion they were code 2 eggs (barn eggs, not from caged hens), and two occasions, they were code 1 eggs (free range).

You can easily check the egg grade code by looking at the first number printed on the egg (but NOT on the box itself)  

If you're a customer of free range eggs, then it is worth checking the egg number on the cheapest available.   

p00hsticks

cronosoft said:

If you're a customer of free range eggs, then it is worth checking the egg number on the cheapest available.   

In England it's not been possible from the beginning of May to get free range eggs, only barn eggs, as chickens had to be kept indoors due to the Avian flu restrictions. I just checked before posting this and it seems the nationwide restriction for poultry was lifted on 16th August so they should beocme available again

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-influenza-bird-flu#latest-situation

pumpkin89

It depends on why you are looking to buy free range in the first place.

If it's because you prefer them in terms of taste then this is a great tip.

But if you buy free range to encourage better animal welfare, you need to buy a box labelled as free range.  Yes, you might find a box of "caged eggs" that happens to contain free range (the egg supplier might have to do this if they run out of the cheaper grade, a bit like a substitution in your online shopping).  But the supermarket is going to take the sales data on that line and interpret that as demand for lower welfare, cheap eggs, meaning they will continue to be produced in greater numbers.

MrsStepford

Always check the code on your actual eggs. I have seen shoppers in ASDA removing the cheapest eggs and putting organic ones in the cheap eggs box. 

MrsFarmer19

I have 5 chickens in my tiny garden, they are laying really well at the moment and I refuse to buy eggs from the supermarket when I don't have enough!  I sell spare eggs for £1.50 a dozen to my workmates, they appreciate actual free range eggs that are only a day old - compared to supermarket eggs that are a few days old by the time they reach the shelves.  In my local town the butchers, greengrocers and other local small businesses (not farm shops as I know they aren't the cheapest) sell eggs that are local and not as expensive as the supermarket.  It's worth looking around for alternatives to supermarket eggs, I know this isn't possible for everybody to do but it's always an alternative & you're supporting local producers/businesses.