Egg industry agrees that high poultry stocking densities pose huge food poisoning risk for consumers

Major egg farmers in Australia recognise that the high outdoor 'freerange' stocking density of 10,000 hens per hectare approved by politicians puts consumers at risk as well as threatening the health of hens. Victorian Farmers Federation egg group president Brian Ahmed  agrees with us that intensive farms should not be described as free range. He used the salmonella scare in Victoria which resulted in a national recall as the basis for saying “Free-range sounds good but it was never meant to be a mass-produced farming system. It was only ever meant to be on a small-scale level.” Mr Ahmed also said he was not surprised that there was an outbreak in the industry.“ We knew this was going to happen, it was a matter of when not if, because the more chickens we put on the ground and the more we run free-range, the higher the risk." At Freeranger Eggs we have always argued that free range is a niche market and requires low stocking densities. John O’Hara, managing Director of Sunny Queen - one of this county’s largest egg producers is on record saying that the maximum allowable outdoor stocking density for free range egg production should be 1500 hens per hectare. Mr O'Hara is a former board member of the Australian Egg Corporation Ltd.(now Australian Eggs).