Most eggs bought in UK shops carry a red stamp with a lion and two rows of numbers, but the codes can be hard to decipher. A TikTok account called madegooduk, which has almost 58,000 followers and posts advice on shopping responsibly, ethically, and sustainably, has explained what the numbers mean.
Decoding the Stamp
The bottom row of numbers is a best before date, indicated by the letters 'BB' at the start. The top row begins with a single digit between zero and three, followed by the country of origin, typically UK, and then further numbers.
According to madegooduk, the first number "tells you how the hen lived". He said: "One of those numbers means she lived in a cage with less usable space than a single A4 sheet of paper."
What Each Number Means
The number one indicates a free-range flock, but this may not match shopper expectations. "A standard free range flock can have up to 16,000 birds crammed into a single building," he said. "But in a crowd that big, the hens get stressed and start pecking each other. So to combat this, a common practice is to cut off up to a third of a chick's beak."
The number zero means organic, which caps the flock at 3,000 hens, gives them more space inside, and does not allow routine beak trimming. A number two indicates hens were housed indoors in a barn but not in cages, while three means they were caged "with less usable space than an A4 piece of paper".
What to Look For
madegooduk said: "Our gold medal goes to purely organic. It's code zero, so it gets the 3,000 flock cap, extra space, and no routine beak trimming." He also encouraged shoppers to check for an RSPCA Assured badge and a Soil Association label, though he noted this is uncommon outside farm shops. "It's the gold standard," he said. "Hens are let out at 12 weeks rather than 21, they get double the outdoor space, and beak trimming is completely banned."
He concluded: "So here's our rule for the egg aisle. Read the first digit on the shell, not the front of the box as a friendly-looking brand and a cute message tells you almost nothing."
The Lion mark on the stamp indicates that hens were vaccinated against salmonella and codes of practice were followed throughout production, according to egginfo.co.uk. The final sequence of numbers on the top line identifies the farm where the eggs were produced.
