Fake free range eggs

A great investigation by Newsroom:

A Newsroom investigation has revealed that millions of free range eggs sold at Countdown before this year were likely to have been laid by caged hens.

They were packaged as Palace Poultry brand free range eggs laid at a South Auckland farm, but Newsroom’s Morgan Tait and Melanie Reid reveal a large quantity are from caged egg suppliers.

The Serious Fraud Office is investigating. …

Stocked in about 70 Countdown stores in the upper North Island, the small print on the Palace Poultry cartons says the eggs are “produced, graded and distributed by Ararimu Free Range Poultry” in Steels Road, Ararimu, South Auckland.

However, a Newsroom investigation has found more than half of the eggs in the pale yellow cartons were not produced at the Palace Poultry farm in Ararimu.

Instead, it would appear Countdown customers have been buying caged eggs in free range cartons.

If correct, this is indeed fraud. Worth reading the full story that shows a lot of hard work getting and verifying this story.