Tesco will phase out caged eggs by 2025 (Picture: Getty)

Tesco is to stop selling caged hen eggs by 2025 after petition launched by a teenager earlier this year collected 280,000 signatures.

The supermarket will follow in the footsteps of Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and Aldi in committing to stop selling caged eggs.

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At present, 43% of the 1.4billion eggs sold by Tesco each year come from caged hens, amounting to around 600million a year.

The remaining 57% come from free range or organic free range hens.


By setting a date in the middle of the next decade, the supermarket has allowed itself the time to phase out the eggs and to allow suppliers to adapt to the new farming methods.



The decision was made after 14-year-old Lucy Gavaghan’s petition urging the supermarket to stop selling caged eggs reached 280,228 signatures.

The supermarket carried out a review of its egg sourcing earlier this year (Picture:Tesco)

She said she had targeted Tesco as a market leader in the hope that others would follow suit.

Tesco said it had already begun to review its egg sourcing but that the petition ‘helped sharpen the focus’.

Matt Simister, commercial director at Tesco, said: ‘We carried out an extensive and collaborative review with our suppliers and key industry experts to help us work through how best we can move to 100% cage-free eggs,’ he explained.

‘This will ensure we give our supplier partners the certainty they require, to make the significant and necessary investments needed for the new farming systems.’

Caged eggs law in the UK The conventional battery cage was outlawed by the EU in 1999 and phased out by 2012. Since then egg producers have been allowed to keep hens in ‘enriched’ or ‘colony’ cages, which must have 600cm sq of free room. However, animal welfare charities have still been critical of the system arguing it has made little difference. Enriched cages, which hold 90 birds must allow ‘natural behaviours’ and is required to have: Potential to nest – one end of the enriched cage has a small nesting area

Potential to roost – perches 3-4” high run along part of the cage

Potential to scratch – a small scratch area is provided with friable matter

Potential to stretch – the height and width of the cage allows for more freedom of movement

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