Cracking time for free range
Free range eggs, championed by television chef Jamie Oliver, are becoming a shopper’s favourite.
Sales are about to crack the two billion mark for the first time this year, up 10 per cent in 12 months.
Jamie contrasted the conditions of free range and battery farmed birds in his Jamie’s Fowl Dinners last year and urged people to buy the “highest welfare” eggs they could afford.
The past year’s sales boost means free range now account for four in 10 eggs sold in the UK, according to the British Egg Industry Council.
Lasse Bruun of Compassion in World Farming said: “We are thrilled that people care about farm animals’ welfare despite the recession.”
Battery cages for laying hens will be banned across the EU from 2012.