The “free-range” eggs scam — under which eggs laid by battery hens in mainland Europe were sold as free-range or organic in British supermarkets — is ten times bigger than was first thought, it has emerged.
For up to five years consumers have been duped into paying premium prices for more than 500 million eggs, investigators have told The Times.
What is known is that at least ten 44-tonne articulated lorries a week — each containing 224,000 eggs, the equivalent of 116 million a year — have been arriving in Britain from mainland Europe, probably for at least five years.
And no one noticed.
There is also concern because many factory-farmed eggs from EU countries contain high levels of salmonella.
The Food Standards Agency estimates that the bacteria are present in one in every 30 boxes of imported eggs on sale in Britain. There is a particular problem in Spain, where one in every eight boxes carries infected eggs.
Does anyone think this is exclusively the result of really smart crooks and coppers who simply thought everyone importing foodstuffs into the UK was upright and honest? Or were there suits getting a piece of the action?
Good thing that here in the U.S.A. we have a truly independent Food & Drug Administration that is meticulous about….erm, never mind.
Buying free-range eggs delivered from another country is just not very smart on the part of the consumer.
Unless deliberate attempt was made to hide from where these eggs where coming from.
Good thing the Brits put enough hot bacon grease on their eggs to kill any salmonella.
So it was pretty much a double scam. The first being that they were free range the second being that organic are any better or better for you.
The FDA protect USains form the former.
Next time, go buy your eggs at a farmer’s market.
Even “legitimate” free-range chickens are kind of a scam.
>> The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that chickens raised for their meat have access to the outdoors in order to receive the free-range certification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_range
So, all it means is that there is a door they can go out of, if they are smart enough to find it. (which, of course, they are not.)
As a family we actually visited a dairy farm, and only drink soy now. This farm was 99% perfect, all their production going to cheese.
Higher quality, better revenue for the 150 cow farm.
Having read this, I will now visit the poultry farm where we buy our eggs.
I’ll report my findings this summer, in cagematch, where regular folks can post new topics.
Written with my blackberry.
#5 From the same article:
In the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says that a free range chicken must have daytime access to open-air runs during at least half of their life. Unlike in the United States, this definition also applies to eggs.
Nevertheless, all this is a pretty weak label and I don’t pay any attention to it in the store. Don’t framers have some kind of system like ISO which would require regular audits, etc?
7,
NOPE.
And it doesnt meant hat the Farmer sold them as required and the SHIPPER or the distributour MARKED them free range.
7, 8 – Also, good old terms like “organic” have now been more or less corrupted by the big corporate farming operations to enable them to use the label. There is in the U.S., however, an entire network of “healthy foods” farms, mostly small farms that go to sometimes great trouble to get hold of animal feeds free of hormones, pesticides, antibiotics etc. After a few years of actual non-fertilizer, pre-1970’s style farming they find their yields per acre go up. And the meats they sell actually taste better though they tend to cost a bit more.
http://www.localharvest.org/ – one place to start looking.
Hmmm, I buy my milk from a licensed raw dairy, and go there weekly…the place is clean, the cows are washed. I eat eggs from chickens I keep in my yard (they eat table scraps, bugs, and cracked grains).
Seems this is the ONLY WAY to be certain of quality and “free range”.
Now…as for switching to soy milk from regular milk (poster #6, Mark). Why would you do something like that? How terrible!
It should be called soy JUICE, not milk, and the methods used to pull it from the soybean would turn your stomach way more than a dairy farm. In fact, read up about “monsanto round-up ready soy”. The genetically altered soy that can be sprayed with liberal doses of the herbicide ROUND UP, to kill the weeds around it. Traces of the herbicide can be found in soy milk. Yum.
Soy and soy milk, cheese, meat substitute, etc., has only been SOLD to the American Public as ‘health food’ because it’s cheap to produce, and is cheap filler for many products. It’s way cheaper than REAL FOOD. Read up about it. The Soy Counsel, has done a great job of brainwashing the public…so try doing a google search on the dangers of soy. Here’s a good start for reading about soy:
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html
Make sure you read: http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/soyandbrain.html
If you are worried about good nutrition and protecting your family, I’d suggest finding out about the SLOW FOOD movement, go to farmers markets, find local producers, and start reading labels, looking up things like hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup, soy protein, the various ways oils are extracted, Monsanto’s other GMO products (like rapeseed, the source of “canola”). Avoid DIRTY dairy farms, and find one that has more wholesome farming practices. Use your $$ to buy products that are grown/raised in healthy ways.
Meetsy – I didn’t know about the Slow Food movement. Found ’em at http://www.slowfood.com/ – it’s a .com site but they say they’re nonprofit. Interesting and I’ll read up on it. Thanks. Got any other links?.
The British standards for calling products **organic** or **natural** are far more stringent than ours or the rest of the EU’s…….there was a story several weeks ago that was the precurser of this story…..several companies that import then distribute were labeling eggs and chicken as **free range** when in fact they weren’t……..this was British raised chicken and eggs. That investigation led to this one.
The large markets in the UK…Tesco, Sainsbury’s and White Rose all claimed to not know what the middlemen were doing. But anyone in the food business knows you can’t possibly produce that amount of free range eggs in that amount of time…..mainly because of the way it has to be done. Thats why free range, organic or natural is more expensive, there is added cost to producing the real thing.
As to free range being better…..they are….if you can, compare a free range laid egg to a normal store bought…..the first thing you notice is the colour….the free range yolk is a heavy, dark orange…..the store bought is a light yellow. Then the taste….the free range has a much firmer, white and the yolk tastes richer.
I am suspect of anyone who claims organic(true organic, not the US definition of organic) is not better for you is a shill for the commercial food producers, who are afraid they may lose market share. Maybe organic dosen’t give you any more vits or minurils, but they also don’t add stuff to your diet that don’t belong there…..which I believe is why we Americans especially, have so many physical ailments that just weren’t present 40 or 50 years ago.
12,
Its not HARD to supply, as you can get MORE farmers doing it. Which makes MORE jobs…
we keep our own chooks for eggs. the taste – did you know good eggs have a really amazing taste?
Another example of how the EU fails to work properly.
Damn, John. You are always anti-EU! Always saying that EU is conspiring against the US in all sorts of things…. Why is that?
John,
The EU is just the European version of the USA.
lol I knew that once i saw that headline for this post, that guy who likes to brag about his home-grown chickens would make an appearance – wtg #10
Ya’ll should just steer away from eating birds, better safe than sorry
tall wookie…I’m not a guy…fyi
#20 – its tallwookie, one word
and i dont really care what gender you are… fyi