The British Free Range Egg Producers’ Association (BFREPA) has begun a programme of egg testing using a new isotope fingerprinting technique.
BFREPA joined forces with technology company Longhand Isotopes to create a nationwide database that would enable Longhand to sample eggs and products made with eggs and identify exactly where those eggs were produced – both country and region of origin. The database was completed towards the end of last year and BFREPA has now started sampling eggs to check where they were produced.
“We collected 25 samples for the first set of tests and the good news is that 24 of those samples were completely clear,” said Robert Gooch, director of policy with BFREPA. There are, however, doubts about the origins of one of the samples collected by the association. BFREPA has now commissioned more tests on this sample to further explore the eggs’ origins.
“The sample was a pack of eggs from Scotland,” said Robert. “What the testing has shown is that the eggs were not produced in Scotland but somewhere else in the United Kingdom. The further tests should enable us to identify exactly where the eggs were produced,” he said.
There is no suggestion that the eggs have come from outside the United Kingdom and the eggs were not being marketed as a regional brand, but Longhand Isotopes, which is based in Yorkshire, will now be seeking to identify where in the UK the eggs in question were laid.
The testing developed by Longhand Isotopes is based on the fact that isotopes in drinking water are different from country to country and from region to region. The water drunk by a hen shows up in the egg it produces and Longhand says it is able to test the isotope marker in the egg to identify its place of origin. It does this by comparing the sample against those in the database created with the help of BFREPA. The association’s members volunteered samples from all over the country so that Longhand would have examples of isotope fingerprints in the different countries and regions of the United Kingdom.
One particular strength of the test offered by Longhand is that it can identify not only the origin of shell egg but also the origin of eggs used in baked products. Longhand says that baking the eggs in a quiche or other food product makes no difference to the identifiable characteristics of the eggs.
Food traceability has become a big issue amongst British consumers. Surveys conducted by the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) indicate that consumers want their eggs to be produced in this country. There have been a number of scares involving eggs imported into the UK from elsewhere. The Health Protection Agency last year confirmed that 136 cases of salmonella had been reported since the beginning of the year. The infections were traced back to a farm in Spain.
Spanish eggs were also linked to a fatal outbreak of salmonella food poisoning in 2002, and in 2004 Spanish eggs were connected with a food poisoning outbreak at a café in central London. One third of the Spanish eggs used by the cafe tested positive for salmonella.
An outbreak of salmonella in a restaurant in Kent in 2005 was also caused by Spanish eggs. The owners had purchased a batch of eggs from an unapproved supplier. In 2009 several outbreaks took place in England involving a strain of salmonella that had not been found in egg-laying flocks in Great Britain.
The food scares have involved not only salmonella. High levels of dioxin were found in some eggs produced in Germany and in February last year German authorities also launched an investigation into 150 farms suspected of selling eggs from overcrowded production units as organic.
Robert Gooch said that BFREPA fully intended to continue with its programme of egg testing. This would benefit both the association’s members and British consumers, who wanted to know where their eggs were produced. “It is very important that consumers are able to have confidence in the eggs they buy. They need to be sure that the eggs marked as British free range eggs are what it says on the box.”
He said that BFREPA was, on behalf of all its members, trying to ensure that all eggs had the integrity and provenance that the association would expect. “We will continue to test to ensure that we stand up for our members’ interests in the free range and organic market,” said Robert.
The test used by Longhand has previously been successful in identifying wrongly labelled food in other agricultural sectors. The company has been working with the British pig industry for some time and testing carried out by the company showed that pork chops being sold in Tesco as British were, in fact, from the Netherlands.
Longhand has also been working with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to look at the geographic origin of foods claiming to be from the UK. The FSA has so far not included eggs on the list of foods to be tested but it has commissioned tests on beef (including burgers), pork, lamb, tomatoes, apple juice and honey. The FSA has said it wants to check the accuracy of current origin claims on food labels to ensure that consumers can be confident that food labelled as from the UK is what it claims to be.
Brands tested under the first schedule of the scheme are:
Free Range Lidl medium free range British eggs x 6
Colony Cage Lidl 10 large British eggs
Free Range Wood farm free range large x6
Free Range Tesco East Anglian free range eggs large x 6
Free Range Rymer Farm med free range x6
Free Range Happy Eggs large x 6
Barn Sainsbury’s basic mixed sizes x 6
Organic Sainsbury’s organic med x 6
Free Range Sainsbury’s free range mixed sizes x 6
Free Range East Anglia farm eggs medium x 6
Organic Waitrose Duchy organic medium x6
Free Range Waitrose free range British Blacktail hens x 6
Colony Cage Merevale Aldi cage medium x 6
Free Range Merevale Aldi free range medium x 6
Organic Merevale organic Aldi medium x 6
Free Range Cooperative Loved By Us free range medium x 6
Free Range Noble Farm Value free range x 6
Free Range Havensfield free range large x 6
Free Range Morrisons Natures Nest free range medium x 6
Free Range East Anglian free range eggs Sunrise x 6
Free Range Farmers Favourite mixed sizes x 6
Colony Cage Morrisons Savers medium x 6
Organic Happy Egg mixed sixes x6
Free Range Morrisons free range medium x6
Colony Cage Farm Foods large x 6
