J Sainsbury : Sainsbury's lays out 100% free range egg commitment

By April 2020, all 800 million eggs sold by Sainsbury's each year will be free range

Today, Sainsbury's has announced that from April 2020 all eggs sold in store and online will be sourced from free range farms in the UK. The supermarket, which sells around 800 million eggs a year - that's 2.2 million eggs every day - will become the first major UK retailer to offer its customers 100% free range eggs.

The commitment will help meet growing customer demand for free range eggs. Recent figures from Kantar Worldpanel show sales of free range eggs have grown by 12% over the last year, adding over £10 million in value, while sales of barn and cage eggs have declined over the same period.

Sainsbury's is committed to sourcing with integrity and today's announcement builds on its strong track record on eggs. In 2004 it launched a partnership with the Woodland Trust to help create and protect the UK's woodland. To date it has raised more than £8.8 million for the charity and helped to plant 3.6 million native trees with the potential to mitigate the impact of more than 812,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This was followed in 2009 when the supermarket became the first major retailer to go 100% cage-free for eggs. All of Sainsbury's own-brand eggs are already from RSPCA Assured UK farms such as The Lakes Free Range Eggs Co and it stocks more RSPCA Assured products than any other UK supermarket.

Judith Batchelar, Director of Sainsbury's Brand, said: 'We know our customers care about where their eggs come from and that they're responsibly sourced. We're committed to offering the best possible quality and value while ensuring high welfare standards and helping to restore the environment at the same time. That's why every egg we sell will soon be sourced from free range farms in the UK and we're confident our customers will be able to taste the difference.'

David Brass, Owner, The Lakes Free Range Eggs Co, said: 'It is a privilege to work with Sainsbury's to supply 100% high welfare free range eggs. This is a great example of Sainsbury's holding the needs of its customers at the heart of the decisions it makes - delivering quality, sustainably produced eggs, whilst driving the highest standards of hen welfare and biodiversity through the planting of millions of trees for them to roam in.'

For customers who want to know exactly where their eggs come from, they can trace an individual egg right back to the farm where it was laid and find out facts about the farm using Sainsbury's online eggtracker.