State and federal ministers have agreed to work on a national enforceable standard for free range eggs.

The ministers responsible for consumer affairs and fair trading met in Melbourne on Friday and agreed to have a draft standard ready by the end of the year, following consultation with egg producers, consumers and agriculture ministers.

Victor Dominello, the New South Wales Minister responsible for fair trading, who made the recommendation for a national standard, said it was an historic agreement.

"It's been overdue for not just months, it's been overdue for many, many years," he said.

This week, the consumer group Choice released analysis which showed that shoppers buying free range eggs were in many cases not getting what they thought they were paying for.

Mr Dominello said growing uncertainty about the definition of free-range meant many consumers had lost confidence in the existing regulation of egg labelling.

He expected there would be robust discussion in arriving at a draft standard.

"Anything at the moment is better than the status quo. The status quo is complete confusion and that confusion causes uncertainty and in many ways unfairness on the egg producers," Mr Dominella said.

"And it's not fair on consumers who don't know what the actual definition of free range is.

"What we've got out of today is an agreement to proceed with a national information standard that will provide that level of certainty which is good for producers, good for consumers and it really is an historic day for the egg industry right across Australia."