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Farming Minister Jim Paice has revealed the UK government is considering banning eggs which do not meet new EU welfare standards coming into force from next year. Paice showed support for a ban on countries selling eggs produced from battery cages outside their borders before an RSPCA fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference this week.

From 1st January any eggs produced by hens in unenriched cages will be illegal under EU law, yet several states have said that they will not meet the deadline, despite having had several years to prepare. It has been estimated that one third of Europe’s eggs will be illegal come January; a number of states demanded a further six month grace period earlier in the year, which the European Commission denied.

UK producers, who have invested millions in order to meet the deadline, have expressed fears they could be undercut by imports from countries flouting the cage ban. Industry representatives including the British Egg Council have said liquid egg, powdered egg and egg products will be particularly difficult to trace back to compliant sources.

Ministers have called on the EC to do more to enforce the ban, as the commission has yet to reveal what the consequences of non-compliance will be or what it will do to ensure the ban is effectively imposed. Mr Paice told those assembled, "I can assure you that we are working very hard to look for our own solutions if indeed the European Commission has not come up with answers by 31 December."

He said the UK government was “not prepared to countenance any weakness of that legislation” and declared that “The best solution would be an intra-community ban meaning countries concerned would banned from selling outside their borders any eggs produced by conventional batteries.”