March 4, 2013

As many as 150 German and 36 Dutch poultry farms have allegedly sold eggs laid by battery hens as organic or free range, blatantly breaking strict EU rules governing the production of eggs.

To legally sell free range eggs in Germany, farms must adhere to strict rules including meeting specific time requirements for populations of hens being kept on their property. If there are too many animals kept during the same time period, the farm can lose its free range status.

Last week German newspaper Bild published a photograph of sick and neglected hens squashed side-by-side in cages, supposedly taken in one of the farms under investigation. The paper claimed that they were being fed foods inconsistent with guidelines governing organic and free range hens.

The investigation, led by prosecutors in Oldenburg city in Lower Saxony in Germany has been on-going since 2011 and as many as 40 farms under investigation advertised themselves as organic. Anybody found guilty of deliberately breaking EU egg production rules could face both heavy fines and up to six months in prison.

"We suspect that there has been systematic fraud on a large scale and it is a serious crime," said the new Green Party agricultural minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Meyer".

It remains unclear whether or not any of the millions of fraudulent eggs have made their way onto the international market.