Eggs
Find out more about our approach to sourcing eggs
Over 50% of eggs in the UK are produced in cages with the remainder being produced in free range or barn systems. The majority of eggs used as ingredients in products like mayonnaise, cakes and quiches are also still from hens kept in cages. During the next fifteen to twenty years, the global population will continue to rise, placing unprecedented pressures on the supply and demand for the global food system. An increase in the more affluent middle classes will further impact the dynamic as a more western diet is sought around the globe. Competition for land, water and energy will intensify, compounded by the impacts of climate change.
In recent years egg production practices have been the subject of high profile campaigns highlighting a range of welfare and environmental concerns. Concerns have been expressed with regards to the treatment of birds, use of antibiotics, energy usage, waste generation and pollution of air, soil and water. At the same time the industry faces increasing scrutiny over standards of food safety and biosecurity. Farming also faces an ever increasing social challenge due to the lack of young people willing to engage in an industry which is seen as challenging with low rewards.
We have a proud history of working with the agricultural community to provide the highest quality eggs that our customers expect while minimising our impacts. Through our Farming for the Future programme we are working with suppliers and farmers to help them address the ethical, environmental and economic challenges they face in order to maintain a long-term sustainable and secure supply.
Commitments and targets
We want to lead the retail sector in sustainable production and consumption, offering our customers the good value, high quality products and services they expect from M&S, while respecting planetary boundaries and the need for social equity. We recognise the integral role of animal health and welfare in sustainable food production and strive to continue progressing the highest welfare standards.
Our goal is to ensure that all our eggs are produced to the highest standards of food safety and quality by farms that are operating sustainably. This commitment applies right across our business – from our fresh products to all the eggs used as an ingredient in our prepared foods. These are global commitments and apply wherever we trade.
Approach
We have a strong heritage of sourcing with integrity. Over the years, we’ve taken significant steps to improve the sourcing of key raw materials in our products.
Eggs are very important to M&S. We were the first UK retailer to respond directly to consumer concerns about laying hen welfare. We have a 100% free range egg policy covering both whole eggs (since 1997) and eggs used as ingredients in our prepared foods (since 2002). We also sell organic free range eggs, free range white shelled eggs, free range Omega 3 eggs and free range duck eggs.
We source in the region of 6 million eggs a week from over 300 known approved farms. We are strong supporters of the UK farming industry and try and source locally wherever possible to deliver the freshest food for our customers. However, we do source from the Republic of Ireland and Continental Europe to improve our resilience against the outbreak of notifiable diseases such as Avian Influenza.
We have been widely recognised as a leader in supporting sustainable livestock practices. We have invested in research and innovation for many years in order to develop and improve farming practices that benefit farmers and the environment.
We have topped the annual Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare since 2013. We were awarded Sustained Excellence in the RSPCA Good Business Awards 2011 and our free range eggs commitment was highlighted as one of our top 5 achievements in animal welfare. We received Compassion in World Farming's (CIWF) Good Egg Award for our free range eggs policy in 2007 and 2002. In November 2015, we were named Retailer of the Year by the British Free Range Egg Producers Association for our leading standards in free range egg production.
Our approach to sourcing eggs responsibly focuses on:
Establishing and maintaining clear minimum sourcing standards
Minimum sourcing principles
Our Technical Terms of Trade set our minimum technical expectations for suppliers to meet. They also set out our position on a number of areas.
Nothing is more important to us than food safety. We believe our product standards are industry-leading. We require all products to be made by suppliers who are technically competent within their specific area and who operate well-managed hygienic locations applying Good Manufacturing Practice, a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach and due diligence to ensure safety, legality, integrity and consistent quality. Find out more about our approach to product standards.
The following minimum standards exist across our entire egg laying hens supply chain:
- 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:
- Non-GM Foods Policy and non-GM Foods Code of Practice – only non-GM ingredients and derivatives can be used;
- 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 poultry chicks and eggs destined for M&S products must have originated from a hatchery on the M&S approved list of hatcheries. And all feeds must be sourced from a feed mill on the M&S approved list of feed mills and manufactured in accordance with M&S requirements (see Approved feed and feed mills below).
All shell eggs and all ingredient eggs (excluding other avian species such as duck) must be sourced from an approved supplier and, in the case of ingredient egg, processed to the standards detailed in our M&S Code of Practice for the Processing of Free Range Egg Products. Find out more about our approach to raw materials, commodities and ingredients.
Our suppliers are also required to meet the requirements set out in our Global Sourcing Principles. Find out more about our approach to supplier management.
M&S Select Farm Assurance – Egg Production
Historically, we operated two different procurement methods for eggs dependent on whether they were used for fresh supply or as an ingredient.
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 Assurance standard and our strict traceability means we can trace these eggs back to the farm where they were produced.
Our ingredient eggs have 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.
During 2015 we began transitioning our supply of ingredient egg to a Select Farm model to further improve the traceability and production standards in our ingredient egg supply chain. This sees us put in place dedicated supplying farms for all our ingredient egg supply, all of whom will operate to the minimum production standards that have always been in place for fresh eggs.
Our M&S Select Farm Assurance 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).
Ingredient egg
As well as rolling out our Select Farm standards and buying model to our ingredient egg supply chain we are also introducing a requirement for suppliers to purchase eggs from approved suppliers in specific geographic locations. We have established three zones of production:
- 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.
Approved hatcheries
All poultry chicks and eggs destined for M&S products must have originated from a hatchery on the M&S approved list of hatcheries which are located in the UK, the Netherlands or France. All hatcheries must as a minimum be independently assured to the following:
- Red Tractor Assurance Poultry Scheme – Hatcheries
- Quality British Turkey (QBT) – Hatcheries
- Duck Assurance Scheme (DAS) – Hatcheries
- Code of Practice for Lion Eggs
- Humane Slaughter Association Code of Practice for the Disposal of Chicks in Hatcheries
In addition, hatcheries are also required to comply with the M&S Code of Practice for Hatcheries. This Code sets out criteria on a number of areas including construction and operation of the hatchery, process control, salmonella controls, hygiene, pest control, welfare, transport, testing, HACCP, chick health, training, and worker health, safety and welfare.
Approved feed and feedmills
We have our own Code of Practice for Poultry Feed which ensures birds are fed a wholesome diet to maintain optimum health and welfare.
We prohibit the addition of any animal or avian derived by products in any of our feed.
M&S egg laying hens are fed a wholesome cereal based diet to ensure optimum nutrition and health. We are very specific about what ingredients are used in our hen diets. Diets will contain the following ingredients: wheat, barley, oats and maize as well as soy, peas, beans as sources of protein. Lutein (from marigolds) is also added to give improved flavour and a bright yolk colour. No artificial yolk colours are added to the birds’ diet.
Free range and organic hens also consume grass and seeds on the range. We strictly prohibit the use of any animal or avian derived proteins or fats in all our poultry diets. Neither do we allow the use of antibiotics for growth promotion.
All feeds must be sourced from a feed mill on the M&S approved list of feed mills and manufactured in accordance with the M&S Code of Practice for Poultry Feed Mills.
All our birds reared for M&S products are fed either home produced feeds or feeds sourced from a verifiable approved source (e.g. AIC Universal Feed Assurance Scheme (UFAS) or Feed Material Assurance Scheme (FEMAS)).
We also require suppliers to source soy-containing feed to a standard that has been confirmed by the International Trade Centre's (ITC) Standards Map as meeting the requirements of the European Feed Manufacturers Federation (FEFAC) Soy Sourcing Guidelines. Find out more about our approach to protecting forests.
Ensuring good animal health and welfare
We are committed to ensuring that the highest standards of animal welfare are adhered to in all our supply chains.
We have a long-term partnership with FAI Farms who provide us with animal welfare knowledge and direction and are responsible for managing our independent data collection and supply chain research and outcome measures.
Our M&S Select Farm Assurance standards have been designed to support our suppliers to meet our high standards on animal welfare. These are based on the ‘Five Freedoms’ recommended by the UK Farm Animal Welfare Committee:
- Freedom from hunger and thirst
- Freedom from discomfort
- Freedom from pain, injury or disease
- Freedom to express normal behaviour
- Freedom from fear and distress
Our farms must be committed to rear, handle, transport and slaughter under conditions of minimum stress, within minimal environmental impact and with full regard to animal welfare.
Birds must not be stocked at a density greater than 9 birds/m2 within the housing area. Flock sizes must not exceed 16,000 birds. Where the flock size is greater than 6,000 birds they must be divided into colonies with a maximum size of 4,000 birds.
We record welfare outcome measures on our fresh egg supply chains. This data is collected on all M&S Select Farm flocks and independently collated by FAI Farms. The information is used to objectively understand the key welfare challenges in our supply chains, allowing us to target our research and innovation projects and track progress over time.
We record welfare outcome measures on our laying hens supply chains. This data is collected on all M&S Select animals and independently collated by FAI Farms (see below).
Labour standards
Our direct suppliers are responsible for ensuring every site supplying M&S, including farms, meet our minimum labour standards which are set out in our Global Sourcing Principles.
Treating employees fairly is the only way to do business and keeping them safe is the important priority of all. Unfortunately, health and safety statistics show that farming is one of the riskiest industry sectors.
Ethical requirements for Select Farms are set out in the M&S Select Farm Assurance standard for each species. We’ve developed supplemental guidance for help our farmers meet these requirements.
Designed specifically for farms we’ve developed simple to use tools to help farmers:
- 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
Farming for the Future
We introduced Farming for the Future in 2010 as a programme of initiatives to champion sustainability, innovation and continual improvement. It exists so that we can deliver our commitment to source our raw materials for food products from the most sustainable sources possible.
Farming for the Future is about us helping the farms in our supply base address the challenges ahead by finding opportunities to improve efficiency, environmental performance and ethical practice. This will make their businesses more resilient and profitable, ensuring that they can continue to deliver quality and innovation for the long-term whilst reducing their impact on the world around them. In turn, this delivers security of supply for M&S.
We have worked with our farms to identify the key sustainability hotspots that impact the poultry sector, which are:
- Feed
- Animal welfare
- Energy consumption
- Litter quality
- Heating/ventilation
We are working to address these challenges through our poultry supply base who have been supported in making changes in their businesses to drive sustainability.
Cool Farm Tool
We’re founding members of the Cool Farm Alliance, which developed the Cool Farm Tool with a number of businesses, academics and sustainability experts.
The Cool Farm Tool is a free to use simple online tool that helps farmers work out the impact of their various activities on the environment, as well as their productivity. It now covers other impacts such as biodiversity and water.
Plan A product attributes
We want every one of our products to have a Plan A attribute by 2020 – a characteristic or inherent quality or feature of a product which has a positive or lower environmental and/or social impact.
Our suppliers are required to progressively improve the sustainability credentials of our products. All should have at least one Plan A product attribute by 2020 and we have targets in place every year to increase this number.
There would be a number of circumstances where eggs and egg-containing products would be awarded a Plan A product attribute, such as:
- Sourced from sites which score Silver or above on our Sustainability Scorecard (Find out more about our Sustainability Scorecard)
- Free range eggs (where >10% of the product)
- Organic eggs
We report progress against our Plan A attribute target through our annual Plan A Report.
Our current list of attributes for food and household products can be found in the document How We Define Plan A Product Attributes, which you can download on this page. Find out more about our approach to product sustainability.
Our current list of attributes for food and household products can be found in the document How We Define Plan A Product Attributes, which you can download on this page. Find out more about our approach to product sustainability.
Research and innovation
We have invested in R&D and innovation for many years in order to improve livestock practices that benefit farmers and the environment. These investments have also been supported by our Plan A Innovation fund. Find out more about our approach to delivering Plan A.
Research and innovation is a key element of our Farming for the Future programme. Our approach is to work collaboratively with our suppliers and farmers to establish the need and then align with the most relevant industry research partner.
We work closely with centres of excellence, such as universities, agricultural colleges and research institutes, to ensure our products and processes remain up to date and industry leading.
Our current priority areas for research of relevance to laying hens and eggs are:
- 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
Outcome-based measures
NOTE: Measures are recorded on all flocks within the M&S fresh egg supply. Welfare outcome measures are captured at the time of depopulation and reported quarterly. Environmental measures are collected annually. Where environmental 'outcome' measures are not currently available or practical to collect, 'input' measures are used in the interim (shown in italics).
In recent years there has been a shift away from focusing on farming systems and input standards towards also measuring and seeking to improve the impact of supply chains on the environment, ethics (for people and animals) and economic elements of a production system.
We are currently developing these sustainability outcome measures and we will use this information, alongside the latest science, to better understand the challenges we are facing together with our suppliers. This outcomes-based approach will allow farmers to pioneer their own solutions and innovations to make progress. This flexibility and creativity is crucial for tackling some of the long-standing challenges to sustainable food production.
We have developed specific sustainability measures for laying hens including welfare measures and these are in the process of being rolled out across our supply base as follows:
| 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 |
We’re currently working with our partners to develop automated methods of data capture to ensure robust and independent outcome measure recording over time.
In 2017, we began to report on a number of animal health and welfare measures for laying hens (see below).
We will publish our year-on-year performance against a more comprehensive set of outcome measures from 2018. We aim to use this data to shape future production standards and drive a continual improvement culture across our farm supply base.
Supporting programmes which enhance the lives of people and communities
Agricultural education
To help encourage young people into the agricultural industry, and to support the development of those already in it, we have set up an education programme. This was developed collaboratively with our suppliers and aims to equip individuals with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience they need at several stages of their agricultural careers.
We are working with colleges, supporting apprenticeships and are offering bursaries, work placements and study scholarships too. So far over 200 young people have benefited from this investment in their future. For example, we are supporting a degree student at Harper Adams University College, with a scholarship in partnerships with Rabobank. This will see the student spend their year-out work placement with M&S working on projects with our agriculture or agronomy teams.
We also provide opportunities for students to ‘walk the supply chain’ to enable them to better understand the issues and challenges around food production and retail. For example, in 2014 we sponsored a new category – Young Producer – at the Scottish National Premier Meat Exhibition together with processor, Scottbeef. As part of this event we offered all 36 entrants the opportunity to follow a carcass from producer to retailer.
In 2013, we developed a unique executive education programme – the M&S Agricultural Leadership Programme – in association with Cranfield University School of Management. This five-day programme sees high potential young people learn about leadership, sustainability and supply chain management. So far the programme has had 55 delegates from across our supply base taking part and feedback has been excellent. Find out more about the ALP from one of its recent participants.
Performance summary
M&S Select Farm Assurance Audits
We have put appropriate assurance arrangements in place to check that our suppliers meet our requirements.
If a supplier fails to meet the standards we will work with them to make changes to improve performance. However, if our standards continue not to be met, they will be removed from our supply. Find out more about our approach to supplier management.
Our direct supplier is responsible for undertaking the M&S Select Farm Assurance audit to the full scope of our standards. During 2017/18, SAI Global also performed a number of shadow audits and spot checks to ensure consistency with our standards. Find out more about our approach to M&S Select Farm Assurance Audits.
Hatcheries and feedmills
During 2017/18, approved hatcheries and feed mills were audited to our standards by SAI Global. Find out more about how our suppliers are performing.
Key performance measures
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 | Shell Egg Supply | Ingredient Supply (UK1) | |||||
| 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 20172 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 20172 | ||
| Number of animals | - | - | 1,545,387 | - | - | 4,573,761 | |
| Proportion (%) of flocks that are free range | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | |
| Proportion (%) of flocks that are beak-trimmed | 86 | 86 | 87 | 94 | 94 | 97 | |
| Proportion (%) of flocks provided with any behavioural enrichment | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | |
| Proportion (%) of flocks provided with the following enrichment: |
|
| |||||
|
| Dust bathing boxes | 80 | 82 | 82 | 43 | 46 | 25 |
|
| Perches (at minimum 15 cm per bird) | 90 | 91 | 86 | 60 | 62 | 50 |
|
| Range enrichment of minimum 20% tree cover | 85 | 92 | 73 | 49 | 57 | 22 |
|
| Pecking objects | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Average flock mortality during transport (% birds dead on arrival) | 0.18 | 0.16 | 0.16 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.1 | |
| Proportion (%) of flocks pre-stunned prior to slaughter | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | |
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 Covers the 2017 calendar year period, i.e. January to December. Previous years data reported on a financial year basis, i.e. April to March
| Outcome measures1 | Fresh Eggs 20172 |
M&S 2025 Target for 95% flocks | Published Industry Figure | ||
| Supply result | % Flocks meeting 2025 target | ||||
| Liveability | Percent flock mortality on farm during lay (mean flock score ± SE) | 7.2 ± 0.43 | 44 | 4.00 | Not available |
| Percent flock mortality during transport (mean flock score ± SE) | 0.13 ± 0.01 | 44 | 0.05 | Not available | |
| Disease | Antimicrobial usage in '% bird days treated with antibiotics' (mean flock score ± SE) | 0.79 ± 0.29 | 86 | < 1% bird days | 0.733 |
| Critical antimicrobial use in '% bird days treated with Fluoroquinolone + Colistin (HP-CIA)' | 0 | 100 | 0.0 % bird days | 04 | |
| % bird days treated with Macrolides | 0.2 ± 0.13 | 95 | 0.0 % bird days | Not available | |
1 Source information: number of groups/flocks outcome measures relate to: 292; number of farms outcome measures relate to: 126; and number of animals outcome measures relate to (based on animal delivered to the factory): 1,533,137
3 2016 industry data
We will publish our year-on-year performance against a more comprehensive set of outcome measures from 2018. We aim to use this data to shape future production standards and drive a continual improvement culture across our farm supply base.
Working with others
Listening, learning, responding and working in partnership is an important part of how we do business.
We work closely with industry experts and scientists to develop our approach to sourcing. We have a long-term partnership with FAI Farms who provide animal welfare knowledge and direction and are responsible for managing our independent data collection and supply chain research on outcome measures. We also work closely with our suppliers to evolve our sourcing approach and standards.
We liaise regularly with centres of excellence in sustainability and engage regularly with leading NGOs, including the RSPCA, CIWF, Humane Slaughter Association, Levy Bodies and farming unions to ensure our approach and policies are current and meaningful.
