Sainsbury's issues eggs pledge

Updated 10.12 Tue Mar 20 2007

Keywords: eggs, Sainsbury's

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's is to stop selling eggs from battery-farm hens by 2012.

The store said it would ensure every one of the 600 million eggs it sells each year do not come from caged hens.

Sainsbury's said the pledge came in response to customer concerns

Instead they will come from either free range birds which roam outside or "barn eggs" hatched in sheds of up to 1,000 birds given access to natural light.

It said the pledge came in response to customer concerns.

Sainsbury's trading director Mike Coupe said: "Sainsbury's is firmly committed to phasing out all its caged eggs ahead of 2012, and is currently working with its egg suppliers to achieve 100 per cent UK cage-free eggs as soon as possible."

The retailer said all its free range eggs were labelled with a code which can be traced back to the farm of origin. It carries out regular audits and checks to ensure free range standards are kept up.