What we do

Animal Health inspectors carry out checks, in England and Wales only, to ensure eggs intended for the table egg market meet Class A standards. This includes all elements of the marketing chain (production, grading, packing, importing and wholesaling), but excludes the retail and catering level. Inspectors ensure compliance with the relevant EU welfare, salmonella control and hygiene legislation at production and packing level, and maintain a list of all egg producers in England and Wales under the Registration of Laying Flocks Order.

Our work involves:

• Carrying out checks on batches of Class A eggs for quality, weight and labelling in England and Wales including imported Class A eggs
• Undertaking on-farm inspections ensuring free range, barn and cage producers comply with the requirements of the relevant welfare, hygiene and registration requirements
• Ensuring that all required egg producers have an official annual salmonella sample collected under the National Control Programme (NCP). This includes the auditing of those producers that are carrying out operator samples only and those who are being officially sampled by Assurance Schemes
• Obtaining egg samples to test for the residue of medicines on behalf of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.

Egg quality and weight sampling tests identify failures to reach the minimum standards required by the law. This may result in a notice of contravention being served on the whole batch of eggs, preventing further marketing until satisfactory compliance with regulations can be demonstrated.

If appropriate Animal Health will refer serious breaches of the relevant legislation to Defra’s Investigation Branch and/or in certain circumstances to the relevant local authority’s Trading Standards department to take further enforcement action. Prosecutions which may arise are heard in Magistrates' Courts, where fines can be imposed up to a maximum of £5,000 per offence.

Animal Health does not regulate egg production and distribution in Scotland. The Scottish Governments website has more information on the egg marketing inspection in Scotland.

Why we do this?

Our work helps protect consumers against the risks from serious infection, for example from salmonella, which can occur in the egg production environment.

It also provides assurance to consumers that free-range, barn and intensive (cage) eggs are produced in the system claimed and that the required minimum standards of welfare for laying hens have been met by producers.

Our work helps protect the public, provides confidence in the food we eat and the way it has been produced, and helps sustain an important sector of our rural economy.