Free-range eggs are returning to UK supermarket shelves as measures introduced to curb bird flu cases are dropped. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced the mandatory housing course of action, which was introduced in late November 2021 following an outbreak of avian flu, are now scrapped.
From today, poultry and other captive birds will no longer need to be housed, unless they are in a protection zone, and will be allowed to be kept outside. For the past month, free-range eggs had to have stickers or labels marking them as “barn eggs” and supermarkets had to display information in-store and online to tell consumers what is happening and why.
It is expected the free-range eggs will start to appear on shelves within a few days. However, eggs laid before then that are still labelled as “barn eggs” may take a few days to sell.
