FOOD LABELS: WHAT DO THEY REALLY MEAN?
By Lana Shore – Published in ‘themountainchicks.com’ Food Blog
Labels are a form of information geared toward educating the consumer about a product. Standard information on a label would be the name of the product, what it is, what size the package is, and the name of the producer. In addition, many companies choose to write more details about the product such as a little more about the way the company runs, what their motto is, what the consumer can expect from the product or their company, and possibly a guarantee as well. This is just a short list of any number of items that can and are being used on a label.
In the case of eggs, different producers use labels to not only identify what the product is, but additional information about how the chickens, which are producing the eggs, are raised. For example, where the chicken lives, what she is fed, and what is she not fed are among a few of the items currently being written on the label. Sometimes they show images of grassy fields and the sun.
Studying a few of the brands available in our local grocery stores what they don’t explain on the label or on the carton, is sometimes disturbing and leaves the consumer assuming more than they should. For example, the 365 brand from Whole Foods Market, uses the words “raised naturally’ and ‘cage free.’ Organic Valley goes one step further and says their chickens are ‘free range and free to roam outdoors.’ Owl Canyon, a local Colorado egg producer has the term ‘pasture raised’ on its carton label. And Simply Truth lists that their chickens live in ‘community houses.’ So what exactly do these terms actually mean?
The wording allowed by the USDA is vague at best and often unenforceable. “The truth is that most egg labels have little relevance to animal welfare.” (Society, 2014) The article referenced here and cited below shows a list of terms and what they mean – and more so what they don’t mean. For instance, ‘cage free’ means the chickens are not in cages but instead in crowed buildings with no outdoor access; ‘free range’ means nothing really as there are no government standards; ‘pasture raised’ means there is no specific amount of space per bird and the USDA does not even define it; and lastly, ‘community houses’ means no outdoor access and too many birds in too small of an area.
However, the labels certainly do suggest an image of a happy chicken which is often not true at all.
Additionally, some egg producers like to embellish their labels with terms such as ‘premium,’ ‘farm fresh,’ ‘fresh,’ and raised naturally. We would have to question these words because once a chicken lays an egg and it arrives at the store, 2-3 weeks will have passed. So ‘premium,’ or any label that says ‘fresh’ is not quite accurate in our opinion. And ‘raised naturally’ is rarely valid in our definition of natural.
We do know what our definition of fresh will mean to our customers and what ‘free range’ means to our chickens. Fresh means you will have the eggs in your home within a few days of the egg being laid, many times eggs will be laid the day of delivery. And free range means the chickens are NEVER penned up or caged. During daylight hours, they can roam our 40 acres if they choose. They are confined within a very large run at night, so they are safe from predators and have three large buildings they can go into or out of whenever they want which have roosting areas and boxes for them to make nests. Their bedding is fresh, clean straw. But most importantly, our chickens are loved and treated so well. They each have a name and are thanked daily for their beautiful eggs.
We understand that many producers have thousands of chickens, so they can sell thousands of eggs. But the chickens deserve to have a natural environment to roam around in, dirt to scratch and roll in, and the choice of whether they want to go inside or be outside. They deserve to be treated very well. Rosa and I think the large producers should focus more on the quality of life they give their chickens who are allowing them to remain in business rather than the high profit they are making from the animal’s egg production.