NZ's Largest Free Range Egg Producer to Start Stamping Eggs
NEW ZEALAND - The country's largest free range egg producer has begun stamping its eggs with a mark of origin.According to Newshub, consumers can trace their eggs right back to their farm where it was laid.
Thousands of hens lay free range eggs at Woodland farm in the Waitaki.
They are free to roam inside and out and their eggs are in hot demand.
Sales are on the rise but there is concern in the industry that there are too many taking short cuts.
"We need to give the consumer absolute assurance that their eggs are what they think they are getting. So if it's a free range egg, we want to be able to demonstrate to them that they are," Mainland Poultry Managing Director Michael Guthrie says.
Some operators already stamp eggs at a packhouse but Mr Guthrie says for full confidence and authenticity, the stamps need to occur where the eggs are laid.
"So we're now stamping the eggs in the sheds, on the free range farms," he says.
The stamp includes a unique code identifying the farms location
Consumers can check the code on a website, and learn about the hens and where the eggs came from.
"Yeah it was pretty easy. And I guess it's quite nice to know that our eggs are from a farm up the road, just about an hour away," one consumer told Newshub.
Woodland was caught up in a Serious Fraud Office investigation earlier this year, after it was revealed South Auckland supplier Palace Poultry was selling millions of caged eggs as free range.
"I am personally 100 percent confident that eggs produced on our Woodland farms are 100 percent genuine free range eggs," Mr Guthrie says.
New Zealand's Egg Federation will vote whether to make egg stamping compulsory across the industry later this month.