Free Range Eggs Meaning

Likewise free range egg producers have no common standard on what the term means.

Free range eggs meaning. Unless you have a chicken coop in your backyard or the access to and budget for farm fresh eggs every day you re probably spending some. Smaller farms may keep birds outside under a canopy area. The broadness of free range in the u s. Pastured doesn t have a legal meaning and isn t third party verified but farmers who use the label often sell at farmer s markets or co ops and can usually answer questions about how their chickens are raised and why.

For chickens to be free range the birds must be allowed access to the outside according to the usda. In march 2016 australian ministers voted in new standards for the definition of free range. Cage free pasture raised free range and organic eggs. Additionally free range chickens might eat non organic feed and are sometimes given antibiotics or other drugs.

Millions of eggs are about to temporarily lose their free range status after hens in england scotland and wales were ordered inside to protect them from an outbreak of avian flu in. In practice this can mean the chickens live most of their lives outdoors retreating to their coop only when weather or other factors require them to do so or it can mean the chickens spend all their time in cramped indoor pens that have a small door opened to the outside for just a few. To be classified as a free range egg farm the hens must have meaningful and regular access to an outdoor range during daylight hours. Finally be aware that free range eggs aren t necessarily the same as organic the usda requires that free range eggs come from chickens that have some access to a small fenced patch of cement which they may or may not use.

The new standards allow for up to 10 000 birds per hectare with no requirement for the hens to actually go outside. Free range eggs are laid from hens that have the opportunity to go outside. Has caused some people to look for alternative terms. If it s important to you that the eggs you buy are from chickens who truly have the freedom to move around outside you might want to look for pastured eggs.

Relating to or produced by farm animals that are allowed to move around outside and are not kept. Free range eggs come from hens that have access to an outdoor range during the day but are housed securely and comfortably in sheds at night.