UK: New barn egg labelling concession introduced to support egg industry

Egg labelling changes have been introduced for poultry that have had to be housed due to avian influenza. From 1 February, eggs originating from free range flocks in Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex will need to be labelled as barn eggs. This will apply to the rest of England from the 27th February. This in line with Egg Marketing Standards Regulations. The commencement date marks the end of the 16-week grace period given after the introduction of a regional (12 October 2022) and subsequent national mandatory housing order (7 November 2022). In recognition of current elevated input costs facing the industry along with the impacts of AI, Defra will allow the same packaging concessions that were granted last year. This means where other options are not feasible, such as over-stickering or marketing eggs in “barn reared” egg boxes, industry will be allowed the use of direct print to pack or an affixed label on free-range boxes to communicate to consumers that the eggs have come ...