Jamie's Fowl Dinners
The British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) has cooperated fully with the producers of the TV programme, Jamie’s Fowl Dinners, which it hopes will present an informative and balanced picture of egg production in the UK.
Early on in the preparation of the programme, the BEIC invited Jamie Oliver and his production team to see all systems of egg production and accompanied them on visits to several farms as well as providing factual information and industry spokespeople.
The UK egg industry believes in consumer choice and therefore provides eggs from a range of different production systems, all of which operate to high standards of both animal welfare and hygiene – for example, eggs are kept away from hens’ droppings in all systems.
The industry is working towards the ban on conventional cages in 2012 and is well ahead of most other major egg-producing countries in moving into alternative production systems.
More than 85% of UK egg producers subscribe to the BEIC’s British Lion Code of Practice which ensures the highest standards of food safety. It also sets additional animal welfare requirements, with standards for free range and barn production mirroring those of the RSPCA’s Freedom Food scheme. The British Lion scheme also requires transparent labelling, for example banning the use of farmyard/countryside images on boxes of eggs from caged hens.