It is the egg that dare not speak its name – thanks to the bureaucrats of Brussels. In what astonished critics derided as a half-baked decision, European Union officials have ruled that a new egg from Sainsbury’s cannot be called by its proper name – because it has been slightly heated up to get rid of hazardous bugs.
(Daily Mail, p8, 14 August 2000)
This is untrue. The Commission had made no such pronouncement, nor had it even investigated the issue. Whether or not the treated egg can be labelled ‘fresh’ or otherwise remains to be seen. The Commission takes seriously the need for proper labelling to enable informed consumer choice within the single market. In September it adopted a proposal for the compulsory, clear and unambiguous labelling of the farming method used to produce eggs. This was to increase consumer awareness of new rules on the protection of laying hens agreed in 1999.