Free-range eggs
Various watchdog organizations, governmental agencies, and industry groups adhere to differing criteria regarding what constitutes a "free-range" and "cage-free" status.
In 2015, there was an initiative proposed in Massachusetts that would ban the sale of in-state meat or eggs "from caged animals raised anywhere in the nation".
Egg industry groups are making an effort to show or "educate lawmakers, voters, and consumers about the merits and cost-effectiveness of cage use".
Major industry players, such as Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer in the U.S., are investing heavily in cage-free production.
[8] There is a voluntary code, which covers the basic standards of husbandry for physiological and behavioural needs of poultry, that allows for 1,500 layer hens per hectare.
[17] In July 2017, Snowdale was fined a record amount of $1.05m (including legal costs) for falsely advertising that its eggs were 'free range'.
[18][19] This was substantially larger than the fines imposed upon Derodi, Holland Farms, Pirovic or Darling Downs Fresh Eggs; set at either $300,000 or $250,000.
[23] Many animal welfare advocates, including the Humane Society of the United States, maintain that cage-free and free-range eggs constitute a considerable improvement for laying hens.
[26] Several investigations, particularly by the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, have raised doubts about to what degree cage-free farms are an improvement for laying hens.
[29] Free-range eggs may be broader in definition and have more of an orange colour to their yolks[30] owing to the abundance of greens and insects in the birds' diet if actually allowed substantial time outdoors to roam.
[33] Differences in age, strain, and nutrition of the hens make it exceedingly difficult to draw scientific conclusions about the effects of housing systems on the quality of the eggs.
Consumer perceptions of these alternative systems delivering a better product are then scientifically unjustified in terms of there being any nutritional difference.
[36] Another research suggests that grass fed hens can produce eggs that are rich in (n−3) fatty acids, without adverse oxidative effects.
Many retailers in the Netherlands, including Albert Heijn and Schuitema (subsidiaries of Ahold), Laurus (including Edah, Konmar and Super de Boer), Dirk van den Broek (including Bas van der Heijden and Digros), Aldi and Lidl sell only free-range shell eggs; however the free-range eggs that are sold in Aldi and Lidl do not meet some country's recommendations for the production of free-range eggs.
[42] In Australia, free-range eggs sold in Aldi and Lidl do not meet the CSIRO]'s Model Code recommendation of 1,500 hens per hectare.
The guidelines for PROOF's pastured eggs allow for a maximum stocking density of 1500 birds per hectare (in line with the CSIRO Model Code) and require that hens be able to range freely in open fields or paddocks.
Private smallholders pay around £6 per "rescue hen", and these birds (which may still be laying daily) then spend a "retirement" in a true free-range environment.
