By JOSIE TAYLOR.
Australians are forking out twice the cost of caged eggs to buy “free range” but are not getting what they think they are paying for, analysis by consumer advocacy group Choice has found.
The group says egg companies are cashing in on the desire of shoppers to buy ethically, but the lack of a national standard has rendered the term “free range” meaningless.
“For the first time we’ve actually put a number on the amount of eggs being sold in Australia that don’t meet the free range expectations of consumers and it’s over 213 million eggs sold last year,” Choice spokesman Matt Levey said.
Top Comments
People need to choose eggs that have a standardised form of recognition. For example, RSPCA or Australian Certified Organic. Don't trust anything that says 'Free Range'. Free Range in Australia just means the chickens have 'access' to the outside. So there can be 20,000 chickens in a barn with one door at the end and that's technically free range.
I knew an old chicken farmer and he laughed at the idea of free range eggs, saying there was basically not much difference from free range chickens to caged chickens. He even said the eggs all got sorted and mixed together in the end anyway.