The United Kingdom Egg Producers Association (UKEP) has announced they are supporting a campaign to encourage the purchase of mixed weight and medium eggs, over large and extra-large sizes.

The “Size Matters” campaign, backed by UKEP, is run by the British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT), who also manage the Laid In Britain egg quality assurance scheme.

The project will target the public and caterers, encouraging these groups to make the change to smaller egg sizes. This is part of the campaign’s drive to allow hens to produce their natural spectrum of egg sizes.

Laid In Britain is designed to support independent egg producers/retailers, who supply locally. Members of the scheme must comply with “the most stringent” health and safety regulations in the market, proving they are a credible source for Salmonella free eggs and happy hens. Bird welfare, BHWT has said, is of paramount importance to member producers and they only feed “the very best” natural foods, which rules out the use of growth hormones or added antibiotics.

UKEP have acknowledged that bird welfare is at the core of this issue, stating that the company have “always been concerned for the welfare of British hens.”

Laid In Britain founding partner, David Spackman, himself a qualified vet, acknowledged that hens bred to lay large or extra-large eggs suffer. Spackman said: “Laying oversized eggs has detrimental effects on the layers’ health, potentially causing a fatal prolapse and depleting them of calcium and protein.”

BHWT stated that the scheme offers producers “a viable alternative to The Lion Code”, which offers “reassurance to customers, such as retail and catering outlets, of the quality and safety of their eggs.”