Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
Source: SAFE NZ
The Egg Producers Federation’s voluntary ‘Trace My Egg’ programme, which claims to reduce the fraudulent labelling of eggs, will not prevent egg producers and suppliers from misleading customers.
SAFE Corporate Campaigns Coordinator Jessica Chambers said ‘Trace My Egg’ is a strictly voluntary, high trust system that should be taken with a grain of salt.
“There’s nothing stopping farms that participate in the ‘Trace My Egg’ programme from stamping cage eggs as free range, if that’s what they’re determined to do.”
Yesterday, Xue (Frank) Chen was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention after his company fraudulently sold more than three million cage eggs labelled as ‘free-range.’
Chambers said the most effective way to stop further fraudulent activity is to ban cage eggs altogether.
“Conventional battery cages will be phased out by 2022 and replaced with colony cages, which are still highly confined systems. The increase of space amounts to the size of a credit card,” said Chambers.
“Caged hen systems are being banned around the world on the grounds of animal cruelty. New Zealand needs to follow suit.”
