§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Government's policy on the individual marking of eggs. [97712]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 13 February 2003]: In 2001 the EU agreed new rules requiring the compulsory marking of hen eggs. From 1 January 2004 eggs will have to be marked with a code identifying the method and place of production. This will improve consumer information and choice and will assist with traceability and enforcement of EU egg marketing regulations. We will soon be consulting interested parties on the format of the producer code. There is no truth in the rumours that each egg will have to be traceable back to an individual hen.
Egg marking will only apply to class A eggs most of which are sold at retail level. Some 80 per cent. of eggs produced and sold in the UK are already marked under the industry's Lion assurance scheme. In negotiations, the UK successfully argued for the inclusion of a provision in the new rules to allow the marking of eggs to take place at any approved packing centre as well as on farms. Furthermore, eggs sold by the producer directly to the consumer for their own use (e.g. farm gate sales or at farmers'markets) will not have to be marked, nor will any non-class A eggs or those sold for processing.
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