Public Attitudes In France - Germany - Great Britain - Italy - Spain On Egg Purchasing And Labelling.

Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, RSPCA, Deutscher Tierschutzbund

The average European consumes around 215 eggs per head per year. The majority of those eggs are produced in battery cages systems. However, in some Member States there is growing demand for eggs from alternative systems.

Awareness of different forms of egg production.

In Great Britain, virtually all respondents have heard of free-range production and nine in ten have heard of battery cage farming. The other two systems, deep litter and perchery / barn farming are less well known. Germany has the highest proportion of people aware of all four systems, whilst the French awareness of free-range and battery farming is higher than the other forms. Italy has the lowest level of awareness with only 38% while in Spain 65% had heard of perchery systems and just 40% free-range farming.

Perception of egg labeling

The confusion about egg labelling is illustrated by an extremely high number of respondents who gave either the wrong answer or did not know that all of the labels mentioned were eggs from battery cages.

Availability of free-range eggs

Only in Britain does an overall majority find it easy to buy free-range eggs whilst shopping. The Germans are second with four in ten finding it easy, although almost one in five find it difficult. Difficulties in finding free-range eggs in southern Member States are higher with 26% in France, 33% in Italy and 50% in Spain.

Willingness to pay more for free-range eggs

Technical details

In each country, a nationally representative sample of +/- 1,000 adults was interviewed. The data has been weighted to match the respective national profiles to ensure representative.