Brits Will No Longer Be Able To Buy Free-Range Eggs In Supermarkets From Monday

UK supermarket shoppers on the hunt for free-range eggs will be out of luck from Monday as chickens have had to be kept indoors due to fears of avian flu outbreaks.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs allowed a 16-week grace period to continue defining eggs from such chicken as 'free-range', but as the period has now come to an end the eggs can no longer be described as free-range and instead will be labelled 'barn eggs'; the name given to eggs produced by hens permanently housed indoors.

New avian flu outbreaks in the past week have prompted the decision to keep the housing order in place despite farmers' hopes the government would lift the restrictions, with the rules on labelling the eggs applied to all birds, whether produced by one hen in a garden or a numerous birds involved in a large-scale poultry business.

Egg producer Daniel Brown, who typically has 40,000 free-range hens wandering his land, told The Guardian his birds have so far coped well indoors as he gave them 'extra things in the shed like hay and grit to give them things to peck at and keep them amused'.

Brown expressed hopes the housing order will be lifted soon as avian flu outbreaks usually drop off as temperatures begin to rise.

He explained: "A chicken won’t be bothered about not going outside in December and January, but when it’s nice in May they’ll want to be out late into the evening."

The British Retail Consortium has assured that 'when the current measures are lifted, eggs will go back to being free-range'.

Supermarkets are set to provide signs to explain the change to customers.

Aimee Mahony, chief poultry adviser of the National Farmers’ Union, said birds will be able to go outside again 'once the risk levels have reduced and the housing measures have been lifted by Defra.'