What Does Cage Free Eggs Mean

October 22, 2020

Free-range is another tricky claim. Most hens in the United States are confined to battery cages small wire cages connected to other wire cages in long rows.

This Is The Difference Between Organic Free Range And Cage Free Eggs I M A Useless Info Junkie

Cage-free pasture-raised organic humane.

What does cage free eggs mean. Cage-free is a broad term and includes barn production systems as well as free-range production systems. Cage-free hens typically live inside barns. Cage-free housing can vary from farm to farm.

Many people who buy eggs believe free-range means the hens are not caged true and they are roaming outdoors most of the time ehuncertain. Again that sounds good but the label has a fairly limited legal definition and the practices of some farmers only following the letter of the law make this. The upside is that some terms mean exactly what they say.

Cage-free hens by contrast are able to walk freely inside the building in which theyre housed and lay their eggs in nests. In a caged housing system each hen is typically given enough space to stand upright but not enough space to turn around move around or stretch her wings. Heres something that the egg industry doesnt want you to know.

The only stipulation a farmer has to agree to in order to label something cage free is to remove the cage idea from the equation. Cage-free marked on a carton of eggs means quite simply that the hens laying those eggs are not kept in cages. W alking through the egg aisle of any grocery store youll be confronted with a variety of labels on cartons.

Cage free does not give any indication of the conditions of the facility theyre enclosed in. Unfortunately it is not a USDA-regulated term so it can mean different things depending on the brand. Cage-free does not mean cruelty-free Even when chickens on cage-free farms arent kept inside dirty cramped battery cages it doesnt mean that theyre allowed to roam free in green pastures or frolic in the sun.

A cage free label on a carton of eggs means they have been laid by hens that are able to roam vertically and horizontally in indoor houses according to the US. The only stipulation a farmer has to agree to in order to label something cage free is to remove the cage idea from the equation. Cage free means just that.

What exactly does that mean. Free-range is not the same as organic. In a barn system hens roam freely inside uncaged have perches to roost on and space to stretch their wings thereby providing for behavioural needs.

Eater notes that the technical definition of cage-free means that hens can freely roam a building room or enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water during their production but do not have access to the outdoors. The vast majority of industrial eggs are laid by hens in cramped cages stuffed wing-to-wing so tight they cant walk spread their wings or do other chickeny things like lay their. Then the USDA gets involved and producers need to comply with the following.

What Does Organic Cage Free Free Range Eggs Mean. On an egg carton cage free means that the hens that laid the eggs were not raised in caged housing systems which is how the vast majority of laying hens in the US. As I once believed cage-free does NOT mean the animals were free to roam in pastures or that they have access to outdoors.

Terms like cage-free and pasture-raised are right on the money while eggs calling themselves organic actually have to meet very. Hens who peck in a field or open area and. Cage-free eggs are a step up from eggs produced by hens who live in battery cages but the hens who lay these eggs still live constrained and impoverished lives.

Eggs packed in USDA grademarked consumer packages labeled as cage free must be produced by hens housed in a building room or enclosed area that allows for unlimited access to food water and provides the freedom to roam within the area during the laying cycle. It sounds like an improvement but in reality the law doesnt mean the chickens are cage-free or free-range Even if it did those terms dont mean much in practice. You might picture hens pecking around a pasture enjoying plenty of space.

Walmart Just Promised To Source Only Cage Free Eggs Here S What That Means Vox