Scrambled Eggs

EU egg marketing rules require eggs to be stamped in the country of production with a country code (GB for Britain etc) and ,their method of production // 3 for battery caged eggs, 2 for barn eggs , 1 for free-range, 0 for organic.

In November last year it was found that to meet demand for a more natural product eggs were being imported to meet soaring UK retail demand and some were by fraudulent marking being "passed off" as home grown free range eggs .

It now appears that that for at least 5 years some 250,000 eggs have been arriving in Britain from Europe each week and that a company wholesaling these eggs, helpfully called Heart of England Eggs, Hill Top Poultry Farm ,Warbage Lane, Dodford, Bromsgrove 61 9BL has been central to a plot to pass off these imported eggs as home grown free range or organic (@ £1.00 a dozen higher retail price) .... which were, it appears from battery cage hens.

Twin brothers Alan and Keith Owen and his wife Carol are apparently on police bail "helping the Police with their enquiries".

Some of these eggs found their way to Deans Food, the country's largest egg producer (10 Mn a week) , which sells eggs on to the major supermarkets... who are naturally anxious to re-assure the shopper that no such eggs ever hit their shelves.

Investigators at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are hoping to crack the case, if you can help contact Defra Investigation Services on 0117 959-3111.

A case of definition

Of course what free range means can be a little tricky, for example, producers within the 12 mile limit of the Norfolk Turkey bred avian flu outbreak, were, by an order signed by Minister Geoff Rooker allowed to sell their product as free range although their birds had to be kept safely locked up because of the avian flu regulations. This de-rogation lasts 12 weeks until May 4th. The majority of flocks caught up in this regulatory tangle supply Deans.