Britons will buy more free range eggs than those from cages for the first time in history this year – last year 51 per cent of eggs in the UK were produced from non-cage systems; the news is being hailed as an animal welfare milestone.

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Champions of free range have pointed to the decision to label eggs produced from different types of system as being responsible for the change of behaviour over a comparatively short time; since 1995, the proportion of free range eggs consumed in the UK has rocketed from 14 per cent to 49 per cent of total consumption. Animal welfare advocates have said they want the same system to be applied to meat.

The RSPCA said compulsory labelling, which ensured all egg packets were labelled with the method of production, precipitated some supermarkets, including Waitrose, Marks and Spencers and the Co-Operative to announce they would not stock eggs from caged birds.

On 1stJanuary 2012, a new regulation was passed in the EU banning the use of ‘unenriched’ cages, although the majority of member states failed to meet the deadline for the switch, British producers were expected to be fully compliant by the beginning of the month, according to Defra. However, although the new cages give hens litter for scratching and perches, each hen has only 750cm squared (around the size of a n A4 sheet of paper) to move around.

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