100% Free Range Eggs
Find out more about our approach to sourcing eggs
Establishing and maintaining clear minimum sourcing standards
- We require complete supply chain traceability
- As a minimum all our farms must be independently assured to UK Red Tractor standards, Bord Bia Egg Quality Assurance Scheme (EQAS), Code of Practice for Lion Eggs, Duck Assurance Scheme (DAS) – Eggs, or KAT Standard
- Sourcing must be in accordance with our Farm Animal Health and Welfare Policy
- We require producers to adhere to our policy on responsible antimicrobial use. We do not permit routine use of antimicrobials and the use of growth promoting antibiotics and hormones is prohibited
- UK labour providers used to provide temporary labour must have a valid license with the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
- Suppliers and farms must comply with the relevant M&S Code of Practice (see below)
All Eggs sold by M&S or used as an ingredient are 100% Free Range.
All our fresh eggs are produced on specially selected, known and audited farms in the UK and Republic of Ireland. These farms are audited to our Select Farm Sourcing Standard and our strict traceability means we can trace these eggs back to the farm where they were produced.
Egg used as an ingredient has been sourced from free range farms audited to UK farm assurance schemes (e.g. Code of Practice for Lion Eggs) or the KAT farm standard in continental Europe without a dedicated or segregated approach. These farms are also audited to our Select Farm Sourcing Standard.
Our M&S Select Farm Sourcing Standards for eggs have been developed in collaboration with suppliers, industry experts and NGOs. They cover criteria such as traceability and integrity, environmental protection, vermin control, facilities for housing and shelter, free range, feed and water, animal health and welfare, medicines and biosecurity, casualty and fallen stock, end of lay handling and transport, egg storage and transport and worker health, safety and welfare.
Birds are housed in spacious barn type buildings with sufficient space to perform normal behaviours and have constant access to food and water. They also have constant daytime access to open pasture which have trees to provide cover and shade.
All M&S egg laying hens are vaccinated against the major food poisoning strains of Salmonella.
We do not permit the feeding of antibiotics or hormones for purposes of growth promotion. Where veterinary medicines are administered due to ill health prescribed withdrawal periods must be strictly observed and treated stock clearly identified.
Farms producing eggs for M&S organic eggs must comply with the organic standards for eggs laid down by UK approved Certification Bodies listed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
- Continental Europe
- Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales)
- Island of Ireland / Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland
Any manufacturer using more than 120 tonnes of ingredient egg will need to split their purchase across at least two geographic zones (with the UK being half and either Ireland or Continental Europe being the other half). This will provide us with resilience against the outbreak of notifiable diseases such as Avian Influenza.
- Freedom from hunger and thirst
- Freedom from discomfort
- Freedom from pain, injury or disease
- Freedom to express normal behaviour
- Freedom from fear and distress
- Review the health and safety risks on their site and identify how to communicate them effectively to workers
- Understand the steps they need to take to effectively screen new workers to ensure they have the right to work and are of the right age
- Provide contracts to ensure farmers and their workers are clear on their contractual rights and responsibilities
- Accurately record hours and provide payslips to workers
Supporting programmes that further our understanding and build capacity within our supply chain
- Feed
- Animal welfare
- Energy consumption
- Litter quality
- Heating/ventilation
- Ongoing development and rollout of Welfare Outcome Measures
- Development of Outcome Measures to understand environmental impact, including collaboration with Cool Farm Alliance
- Understanding of bone health in laying hen flocks
- Avoidance of beak tipping for laying hens
- Responsible use of animal medicines
Category | Sustainability Measure |
Welfare Measures | |
Liveability | Percent (%) mortality (including culls) on farm during rear and lay |
Flock evenness in rear | |
Percent (%) mortality during transport | |
Disease | Percent (%) condemnations |
Antimicrobial use by type, dose and treatment case (and if treated in first 7 days) | |
Injury | Average flock score for feather cover |
Percent (%) flock with keel bone break | |
Percent (%) of animals with leg and wing breaks and bruising | |
Mobility | Not applicable for laying hens |
Behaviour | Maximum stocking density |
Occurrence of IR break trimming for flock | |
Presence / absence of enrichment provision (natural light, perches, range cover) | |
Environmental Measures | |
Climate Change | Percent (%) total energy use from renewable source |
Land System Change | Proportion (%) of diet in competition with human diets (non-forage based) |
Proportion (%) of diet components from certified sustainable sources | |
Freshwater Use | Percent (%) total water use from renewable/recycled water use (non-mains) |
Biodiversity | Percent (%) of total area not in production, set aside and managed for wildlife, or protected and condition (if known) |
Percent (%) total land (Ha) that is protected (including SSSI, SPA, SAC, ELS/HLS, etc) and condition (if known) | |
N and P Flows | Proportion (%) manure handled under safe management and storage |
Chemical Pollution | Percent (%) total waste routinely recycled |
Supporting programmes which enhance the lives of people and communities
Performance summary
During 2019/20, approved hatcheries and feed mills were audited to our standards by Lloyd's Register. Find out more about how our suppliers are performing.
We're committed to reporting on our use of animal welfare and environmental outcome-indicators. In 2017, we began to report on a number of key measures below:
Measures | Free Egg Supply | Ingredient Supply (UK and EU) | |
Number of animals | 1,823,696 | 10,711,736 | |
Proportion (%) of flocks that are free range | 100 | 100 | |
Proportion (%) of flocks that are beak-trimmed | 86 | 60 | |
Proportion (%) of flocks provided with any behavioural enrichment | 100 | 100 | |
Proportion (%) of flocks provided with the following enrichment: | |||
Dust bathing boxes | 78 | 46 | |
Perches (at minimum 15 cm per bird) | 100 | 100 | |
Range enrichment of minimum 20% tree cover | 89 | 50 | |
Pecking objects | 100 | 100 | |
Maximum transport time (hrs) to factory across all flocks (inc. loading and unloading) | 8.0 | 8.0 | |
Average transport time (hrs) to factory across all flocks (inc. loading and unloading) | 8.0 | 6.7 | |
Average flock mortality during transport (% birds dead on arrival) | 0.20 | 0.26 | |
Proportion (%) of flocks pre-stunned prior to slaughter | 100 | 100 | |
Proportion (%) of eligible animals that received an ineffective stun across all supply | 0* (across all types) |
*One supplier did not provide this information
1 100% of our shell and ingredient egg supply regardless of origin, is free range. We have recently introduced a requirement for suppliers to purchase eggs for our ingredient supply from approved suppliers in the EU to provide us with resilience against the outbreak of notifiable diseases such as Avian Influenza. Increased enrichment is a key area of focus. An estimated 60% is sourced from UK, with the balance from the Republic of Ireland and other countries in the EU. During 2018, we have been reviewing our EU ingredient egg supply chains and will look to report fully on EU ingredient egg supply next year.
2 From 2017 we moved to reporting calendar year. Previous years data was reported in a financial year basis, i.e. April to March.
Outcome measure | Supply result | % Farms meeting 2025 target | M&S 2025 Target for 95% flocks | |
Number of animals | 1,695,008 | |||
Liveability | Total flock mortality on farm during lay (%) | 5.6 | 53 | 4.00 |
Total flock mortality during transport (%) | 0.3 | 19 | 0.05 | |
Disease | Antimicrobial usage in '% bird days treated with antibiotics' | 1.2 | 70 | < 1 |
Critical antimicrobial use in '% bird days treated with Fluoroquinolone + Colistin (HP-CIA)' | 0.00 | 100 | 0.0 |
We aim to use this data to shape future production standards and drive a continual improvement culture across our farm supply base.