Friday is – as strange as it may sound – ‘World Egg Day’. Cage keeping, labeling of origin and husbandry, feed: Austrian egg production differs from international egg production in a number of ways. And yet we can be sure that we regularly eat eggs from caged chickens!
The inventor of ‘World Egg Day’ is the Austrian Willi Kallhammer, who, as chairman of the ‘International Egg Commission’, organized the World Egg Congress in Vienna in 1996. At that time it was decided to dedicate the second Friday in October worldwide to the egg.
On average, an Austrian consumes 248 eggs per year. A modern chicken lays 290 to 320 eggs per year (note: a modern laying hen can lay one egg every 24 hours. After about 100 days she takes a short laying break, then she continues laying eggs every day). More than seven million laying hens produce our Austrian eggs. If you look at the way animals are kept around the world, it is anything but common that they are no longer kept in cages.
The majority of eggs marketed worldwide come from chickens kept in cages. In Austria, classic cages are prohibited, but the import of caged eggs is allowed!
These numbers are not the best
On World Egg Day, the animal protection organization “Vier Pfoten” took a look at the current Austrian import figures for eggs: last year a total of 24,985 tons of eggs or egg products were purchased from abroad. The largest importing country is Germany with 12,354 tons, followed by the Czech Republic with 2,876 tons and Poland with 2,666 tons.
While Germany keeps “only” four percent of all laying hens in cages, in the Czech Republic 56.3 percent of chickens have less than a DIN A4 sheet of living space. In Poland that is almost 70 percent. But this also means that Austria will most likely buy caged eggs.
The so-called “designed” cages are still allowed in the EU. For the animals, this means having to constantly stand on mesh floors in an area of just 750 square centimeters, with no way to even come close to meeting their needs.
The conditions for animals outside the EU are even worse, because instead of “equipped” cages, traditional battery laying systems are still common there. And Austria also imports eggs from third EU countries. For example, in 2023, almost 152 tons were imported from Ukraine. Even 63.2 tons of eggs came from China.
Why we still unknowingly eat caged eggs
“Although cage keeping has been banned in Austria since 2020, this unfortunately does not mean that caged eggs will no longer end up on our plates. These are often found in processed products such as sauces, pasta or pastries. But unlike fresh eggs, consumers cannot check their origin here. There is no binding labeling of the egg ingredients used at a legal level,” says campaign leader Veronika Weissenböck of “Four Paws”.
Play it safe
Do you know what the marking on the egg means? In fact, it provides information about the living conditions of the chickens from which your breakfast egg came. The following applies: the smaller the first number, the less the chicken suffers. Each egg produced in the EU must be identified by an individual code made up of numbers and letters. This code indicates where and how the chicken that laid this egg was kept:
0 = organic farming
Eggs from organic farming must meet strict EU-wide requirements. The food must be 95 percent organic; five percent conventional non-GMO protein food is allowed. Organic chickens have daily exercise, space to peck, sand baths and rest, and trees and shrubs under which they can hide.
1 = free range
Inside the stable you cannot see the difference between barn and free-range farming. The coop makes the difference: hens must have access to the outside air every day. In Austria, this run must be at least eight square meters per chicken. The feed does not have to come from organic farming here.
2 = floor position
At the livery stable, nine chickens per square meter live in enormous halls. If perches and nests are placed on multiple floors (so-called aviaries), there can even be 18 hens per square meter of stable floor space. Although they can move around, forage in a scattered part of the stable and bathe in dust, they never experience daylight or movement in the fresh air.
One of the biggest animal welfare problems in the egg industry is the so-called killing of chicks. It means that the male chicks are selected, the majority are killed and used as feeder chicks are used. The only exception is the organic sector! Killing chicks is prohibited there and the male offspring are called brother cocks increased.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
