Bonn, Germany - Germany's animal welfare federation has called on leading food producers to clearly state the origins of the eggs used in their products for the benefit of conscientious consumers. Deutscher Tierschutzbund (German Animal Welfare Federation) recently reproached food companies such as Bahlsen, Verpoorten, Coppenrath & Wiese and Birkel for using battery eggs without declaring this on the packaging.
Battery eggs are sourced from chickens kept in very small cages, often leaving them space the size of a file cover. The federation criticizes such conditions as in no way appropriate to the species and in contrast to alternative systems of free-range or barn-held hens.
About 40 per cent of eggs produced in Germany are used in pasta, biscuits or processed products, but the package labels do not reveal the source of the eggs.
This neither serves the purpose of animal welfare or consumer protection, the federation says, adding that many consumers who would never choose to buy battery eggs have no idea that their frozen produce may contain them.
"Consumers want to know what's in their products. Now the industry should also take responsibility," Deutscher Tierschutzbund spokesman Steffen Seckler told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
"I always buy organic eggs, and I would never pick products if the package said 'containing battery eggs'," said consumer Sandra Albersmann, who lives in the town of Coesfeld in Northwest Germany.
Food producer Bahlsen declined to comment on the issue. But frozen cake producer Coppenrath & Wiese, based in Osnabrueck in Lower Saxony, defended its use of battery eggs.
"To us, quantity and security are the most important issues," Coppenrath & Wiese spokesman Frank Schroedter told dpa. Alternative producers could not guarantee to deliver the quantity of eggs the company needed, he said.
Schroedter said that German producers would be "discriminated" against if they had to declare the origin of their eggs, in the absence of European guidelines on the issue.
He also claimed that organic eggs were likely to contain more salmonella bacteria than eggs from battery hens.
However, recent findings by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) contradict such claims.
In research on the prevalence of salmonellae commissioned by the European Union, the institute found that: "Bigger farms with more than 3,000 hens and animals in battery cages are more likely to be affected than smaller farms." Free-range hens and animals which are held openly in barns also appear to be less affected, the study said.
Overall, salmonellae were found in about 30 per cent of the big German hen farms, putting Germany in the middle of the European league.
In Scandinavian countries, quotas were less than 1 per cent, whereas 65 per cent of the farms were affected in some Eastern European countries, the study says.
Salmonellae cannot only be found in eggs, but also in meat, fish or processed products.
"If you don't heat the eggs properly, the salmonellae stay in. It really depends on how you handle the eggs," Adriane Girndt of the BfR explained.
As eggs in processed products are usually heated, health risks are not the main reason to avoid products containing battery eggs.
However, more and more people are choosing free-range or organic eggs because they think battery-held conditions for hens are cruel, according to Deutscher Tierschutzbund.
One of the companies that decided to change their policies as a result of rising consumer awareness is international food giant Dr Oetker, one of Germany's leading food producers.
Within Germany, they switched to so-called "deep litter" conditions, in which the hens move openly in barns on a layer of litter, in May.
"We have seen how some animals were kept in battery cages and reacted to this," company spokeswoman Birgit Kopera says. However, Dr Oetker do not label their products either.
Apparently, the consumer is kept in the dark.
