Free-range eggs become '˜barn eggs' following bird flu
The birds have been kept in barns since December following government orders put in place to stop the spread of the disease.
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Hide AdHowever, EU regulations state if birds have been kept indoors for more than 12 weeks their eggs cannot be classed as free range.
To qualify as free-range, there must be unlimited daytime access to ‘runs’ with vegetation and at least 4 sq m of outside space per hen.
Usually there are four different types of eggs on sale in the UK - free-range, organic, barn-reared, and caged.
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Hide AdAlthough there is no risk to consumers, and the relabelled eggs will still taste, look and cost the same, bird flu can wipe out entire flocks - hence the ‘curfew’ on the poultry.
Existing free-range egg cartons have been stickered with the advice ‘Laid by hens temporarily housed in barns for their welfare’.
“The need to change labelling of free-range egg packs after 12 weeks is an EU requirement,” Mark Williams of the British Egg Industry Council told the BBC.
“However, these are all still free-range hens, but some are temporarily housed to protect them from bird flu.”