What Sainsbury's Say...

[Conserned Consumer]

I was on the phone to Sainsbury's earlier, and asked them a few questions, here's what they said:

Q. Do you label Kosher and Halal meats?

A. Kosher - No. Halal - Yes.

Q. Do Sainsbury's have any plans to improve food labelling on their products, notably, whether eggs used in Sainsbury's own products are free-range or not?

A. All Sainsbury's products across the board use free-range eggs, as part of our ethical trading policy.

[Anthony Butcher]

Originally Posted by Jonathon Staples

A. All Sainsbury's products across the board use free-range eggs, as part of our ethical trading policy.

that's interesting to note. I had no idea that they had switched as well. Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and the Co-op have all switched to free range eggs too.

I would like to test that claim in terms of mayonnaise, fresh pasta and so on. I am pretty sure that they don't explicitly say 'free range' on them.

[Anthony Butcher]

Holly, my other half, said that the Taste The Difference range is all free range, and says so explicitly on the labels, but she is fairly certain that the other ranges don't.

[Astrocat]

I wouldn;t trust any supermarket's call-centre.
Pretty much every query i put to supermarkets seems to leave their teams of experts tied in knots for weeks before I get a reply, so I can only imagine how hasty a reply by phone might be, in comparison.

Anyway, i wrote to Sainsbury's earlier on.

I said :

Dear Sainsbury's,

I am writing to ask whether Sainsbury's intend to improve the standard of food labelling on their products ?

For example, what quality are the eggs used in Sainsbury's own products (for example, are they free-range, from battery hens, etc) ?

And they've just written back, saying :

Thank you for contacting us. I understand that you would like information on whether we intend to improve our food labelling. I am sorry that you feel that we are not adequately labelling our products. I also understand that you would like to know about the quality of our eggs.

We have a long standing, established commitment to animal welfare. It is our firm conviction that animals should be treated humanely and we are committed to good welfare standards for all livestock used to produce our own brand food and drink. As such, we adhere to the recommendations of the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), an independent body of experts advising the government on the humane treatment of animals and poultry.

In 2005 we moved all hens producing our standard eggs from caged systems to barns, significantly reducing the number of eggs we sell from caged hens. Our Basics eggs are now the only eggs we sell from caged systems and these are clearly labelled as "eggs from caged hens" to ensure our customers can make an informed choice. All our Basics eggs are from Lion Quality registered premises, which are inspected and approved by an independent agency. The Code of Practice for Lion Quality eggs includes animal welfare, hygiene and traceability requirements.

As a company, we sell over 13 million eggs per week and our customers rely on us for a continuous supply. While free range eggs are not yet available in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of all our customers, we are committed to phasing out all caged shell eggs prior to the EU deadline of 2012. In March 2007, we were delighted to receive a Good Egg award from Compassion in World Farming, in recognition of this commitment.

We are also committed to converting the majority of our free range and organic eggs to our Woodland eggs scheme. Woodland organic and free range hens feel more secure as a result of the shelter provided by the trees. They are therefore able to freely demonstrate more of their natural behaviour, for example dust-bathing, and are happy to range and explore further from their house.

Only free range eggs are used in our Sainsbury's SO Organic, Taste the Difference, Super Naturals and "Not Just for Vegetarians" ranges, as well as our customer restaurants. Any products that contain free-range eggs will be clearly labelled as such. We also sell barn eggs, where the hens are reared in barns that are independently audited and certified by the RSPCA Freedom Foods scheme. Our free-range, organic and Woodland eggs are also certified by the Freedom Foods scheme.

If you would like any more information about our commitment to phasing out caged shell eggs, please have a look at our corporate responsibility reports. You can find these on our corporate website, at J Sainsbury plc : Responsibility.

We will be phasing out eggs from battery farms over the next four years. Once we have done this, we will no longer use them in our products.

I have noted your comments on to our system and this will enable our quality managers, buyers and suppliers to take any necessary action. If you need any further information on any of our products or feel that certain items are not labelled adequately, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write to us and for giving me the chance to explain. I can promise you that we are committed to selling the highest quality products and making Sainsbury's your first choice for food shopping.

Kind regards

Heather Bamforth
Customer Manager

As I've been saying already elsewhere, if something is free-range then you can bet that the producer will be sure to tell you all about it !

Anyway, the answer is yeah.... they use battery eggs in their stuff. But, they're phasing it out.