Recent fraud cases cast shadow on egg sector

Recent fraud cases cast shadow on egg sector
By Philip Clarke on March 23, 2010 5:48 PM
Egg suppliers are in danger of being tarred with the same brush as politicians, following recent cases of fraud and corruption.
The case of Keith Owen, who was fined over £3m and sent down for three years for selling millions of eggs from caged birds as free range and organic, received widespread coverage in the national media.
The British Egg Industry Council was quick to point out that its British Lion scheme had been tightened up since those offences were committed in 2006, and welcomed the tough sentence handed down in early March.
But then came news a week later that Derbyshire trading standards officers had "issued advice" to nine businesses following spot checks on eggs in the county...
Apparently 19 out of 50 eggs tested did not match the description on the box - a 38% failure rate - again with supposedly free range eggs having come from caged systems. Others were out-of-date and under weight, prompting one local councillor to observe that "egg fraud is big business across the country".
The news resonated with comments made by one egg producer at the recent NFU annual conference, who said that "the cowboys are taking over in my part of south Yorkshire".
With parts of eastern Europe clearly unable to meet the impending EU cage ban, she feared a flood of illegally-produced, incorrectly labelled eggs coming onto the UK market from 2012.
Of course the vast majority of egg producers and suppliers in this country operate to the highest of standards - which is more than can be said of MPs in Westminster.
But it only takes a handful of "bad-uns" to create the impression that everyone is "on the game" and cast doubt about the integrity of the product.
It is therefore essential that everyone in the egg business remains vigilant and reports any irregularities to the appropriate authorities.