Anger as Italian barn eggs hit supermarket shelves again

Supermarket Sainsbury’s has faced fresh criticism this week after eggs derived from Italian barn systems were spotted on shelves, together with signage suggesting they had come from hens that were previously free-range.

With avian flu housing orders still in force, all UK eggs supplied under the Lion Code now have to be labelled as “barn eggs”.

But given ongoing “supply challenges”, Sainsbury’s says it has also had to return to importing eggs to keep its shelves stocked.

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UK egg producers have been quick to condemn the practice. West Sussex organic farmer Susie Macmillan of The Mac’s Farm, who spotted the Italian barn eggs in her local store, said on Facebook she was “absolutely disgusted to see Sainsbury’s stocking Italian barn eggs covered in plastic”.

“You literally have a British family farm producing free-range organic eggs down the road,” she said. “They are taking us all for a ride so they can take home that little extra profit.”

Support

The social media post attracted hundreds of comments, mostly expressing support for British family egg producers and frustration with Sainsbury’s.

There was also anger that the signage suggested the eggs were “produced by free-range hens temporarily housed” to protect them from avian influenza, which would not be the case with Italian barn eggs.

In response, Sainsbury’s said: “We are committed to sourcing British as much as possible and continue to work hard with our suppliers across the UK to ensure customers can buy what they need.

“To help maintain availability, we are also temporarily sourcing some eggs from Italy, which will be clearly labelled on the packaging.”

However, it conceded that suggesting Italian barn eggs had come from birds that were previously free range was a labelling error and this had now been rectified.