The European Commission has certainly “gone to work on an egg”. Its latest requirement is that farmers must stamp every egg they sell with their home address, the details of the hen which laid the egg, the method of production, the code for the producer-packer, and a sell-by date…
The Daily Telegraph, 8 February 2003, p25
Passed in direct response to requests from consumers and consumer groups, the EU legislation referred to here requires only that eggs be stamped with the farm code (which also indicates the country of origin) and the method of production. Any other details stamped are voluntary or as a result of national measures.
The decision on where stamping should take place – on the farm or at the packer station – has not yet been taken, so the assertion that producers will have to ‘waste £5000 on labelling equipment’ is highly speculative