Bfrepa appeals to celebrity chefs over large eggs

BFREPA chairman James Baxter has written to 50 celebrity chefs asking them to help “end Britain’s obsession with large eggs”.

It forms part of a broader Bfrepa campaign to redress the balance in egg weights, with retailers, recipes and celebrity chefs often asking for large eggs.

The result is depressed demand for medium and small eggs, and subsequently lower returns at the farm gate for those sizes, which with seconds included account for 45% of a birds’ production, according to Adas.

Furthermore, pushing birds to produce a higher proportion of large eggs can be detrimental to welfare.

As such, Bfrepa has written to 50 celebrity chefs and asked for them to remove references to large eggs, and encourage consumers to use a variety of sizes in their cooking.

Mr Baxter said: “Free range eggs are a staple of British diets but shoppers have become obsessed with getting the biggest egg they can.

“Egg size can be affected by a number of variables such as the weather, diet and light levels – as farmers bird welfare is our number one priority and we want to allow hens to lay what comes naturally.

“We hope that these letters will resonate with chefs and bakers who are in positions of influence but, more importantly, care deeply about how food is produced.”

Bfrepa is also calling for references to the size of eggs used in recipes to be removed wherever possible. One ‘easy win’ may be the British Egg Industry Service’s Egg Recipes website, where a number of dishes ask for Large Lion eggs.