The tagging egg is an egg labeling form that includes the code egg code stamped on the egg itself. In the European Union there are producer codes regulated by law since 2004. This allows consumers to differentiate eggs from organic farms free range and eggs from industrial chicken cage production.
Video Egg marking
Egg contents
The egg sign can contain any number of pieces of information - in the EU only manufacturer code is required. Additional information can be printed along with the most common date of production. Other information may contain methods of production especially in the non-EU world where the rate numbers do not apply.
Note that egg labeling is used worldwide but mostly in egg carton labeling. In most countries there is a legal definition of the appointment of egg size, production method, packaging identification, and date before the best. Since there is more room in the carton there is no tendency to make egg codes visible on the stamps used to tag the eggs.
Maps Egg marking
Producer code
The European Union has defined the egg code consisting of
- number showing the production method
- two-letter code for country of origin
- registration number showing chicken laying company
An egg stamp is required in the EU on all grade A eggs unless it is sold directly on the farm.
Production method
The first number of egg codes defines four levels of production quality in decreasing order - requirements on organic farm eggs extend to the requirements of free range eggs.
- 0 = organic egg production
- 1 = free-spaced egg
- 2 = house in the garbage inside
- 3 = cage farm
In the EU, this level has a strict minimum requirement:
- enclosed: it has a minimum space requirement of 550Ã, cmÃ,² per chicken hen. But the European Union has banned the battery cage in 2012 through the EC Directive update 1999/74/EC. The new minimum is 750Ã,® cm in cage equipped.
- indoors: minimum space per chicken is raised to 1100 cm² (or 9 hours per square meter). No cage is allowed and instead the hen can sit on an elevated terrace in a large barn that has a covered floor with sawdust or better.
- Clearance: next to the barn (with indoor space 1100 cm per hen) there should be an outdoor space for chickens with continuous daytime access. There is a minimum of 4 mÃ,² open space per chicken.
- organic: indoor space raised to 1667 cm² (or 6 hours per square meter); available outdoor space has a minimum of 4 mÃ,² with adult grassland for poultry, and food waste must come from organic production.
Country code
The country code follows the two-letter ISO country code (also known from the country code top level domain). This includes
Registration number
In most countries, the registration number begins with the area code where the egg production facility is located:
- Germany - 01 Schleswig-Holstein, 02 Hamburg, 03 Lower Saxony, 04 Bremen, 05 North Rhine-Westphalia, 06 Hesse, 07 Rhineland-Palatinate, 08 Baden-WÃÆ'¼rttemberg, 09 Bavaria, 11 Berlin, 12 Brandenburg , 13 Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, 14 Saxony, 15 Saxony-Anhalt, 16 Thuringia
- Austria - 1 Burgenland, 2 Carinthia, 3 Lower Austria, 4 Upper Austria, 5 Salzburg, 6 Styria, 7 Tyrol, 8 Vorarlberg, 9 Vienna
Note that producers with multiple barns must register each barn separately.
Criticism
There are several instances of falsified manufacturer codes - the general concept is to have lots of barns on the same plot with some having chicken cage production and one with organic egg production codes. Eggs then quietly moved to another barn providing egg codes as if they were from organic production enabling higher prices in the market. In Lower Saxony (Germany), prosecutors allege 150 farmers in a year.
The sign on organic egg production as level 0 may indicate that nothing is better than that. But it does not show sustainable agriculture where chickens are fed from organic farming alone. Also the appropriate breeding species will require more chambers per chicken or chicken at a lower rate per barn (or even have chickens around to calm the argument). Instead there is a higher organic farming standard (eg Demeter or Bioland) that can not be expressed in a defined egg code system. Differences in space per animal are limited between levels 1 and 0:
See also
- Organic certification - organic products must have a registration number that allows to trace back ingredients.
- Bio mit Gesicht - a sign of additional manufacturers in organic farming with databases to show farms
- Development of worldwide free reach standard
References
External links
- http://www.eierdatenbank.at/was-steht-auf-dem-ei/- Austrian Database
- https://www.was-steht-auf-dem-ei.de/en/index.php - German database (English page)
- http://www.bauernhof.net/tierhaltung/eierkennzeichnung/freiwillig.htm additional sign guidelines
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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