Jamie's Fowl Dinners

The British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) cooperated fully with the producers of the TV programme, Jamie’s Fowl Dinners.

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.

The UK industry is committed to providing consumers with information on all systems of production so that they can make an informed decision, and publishes a comparison of production systems (produced by the Farm Animal Welfare Council) on its website (http://www.britegg.co.uk/ukeggs05/ukeggs2.html).