When is an egg not free-range?

Following recent investigations and court actions against egg suppliers for allegedly misleading free-range claims, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released a guide to assist egg producers better understand their Australian Consumer Law (ACL) rights and obligations when promoting their products as free-range.

With a law reform consultation process currently underway on whether Australia should adopt a national standard on free-range egg labelling, the guide aims to bring clarity to existing regulatory requirements, explaining the ACCC’s approach to enforcing misleading conduct provisions of the ACL in the context of free-range egg claims.

“The Australian Consumer Law requires that any statement or representation a business makes when advertising or selling free-range eggs must not be misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

The guide outlines what the ACCC considers a free-range claim. This includes using:

• the words ‘free-range’ on packaging or in advertising material;
• words that mean the same thing as free-range on packaging or in advertising material;
• pictures of hens ranging freely, including in a grassy field.

“If it is not normal for most of the hens to leave the barn and to move about freely on an open range on most days, making a free-range claim is likely to be misleading. This approach accords with common sense,” Sims said.

“The ACCC acknowledges that laying hens may spend periods indoors and we do not expect to always see hens on the range or expect every hen to be outside every day.”

Sims clarified that the ACCC does not expect farmers to use a precise approach of tracking hens or head counts, with a common-sense approach of simply observing that the range is in regular use by a significant proportion of hens on most days deemed to be sufficient.

However, he said the commission rejects claims that it is acceptable to tell consumers that eggs are from free-range hens when the outdoor range is not regularly used by the hens — whether as the result of farming practices or for any other reason.

A copy of the ACCC’s free range guide is available online.