www.foodtechnology.co.nz 5 well as prepared wheat and barley. A small proportion of Woodland eggs are sourced from two additional franchise farmers who meet the company’s exacting standards, and all sites collect eggs daily to ensure freshness. “Demand for free-range eggs is growing strongly in New Zealand, and as the recent outcry has shown, consumers want to be assured that they get genuine free- range eggs,” Guthrie says. Free-range eggs cost twice as much as the average cage eggs – at an average of $7.20 per dozen – but New Zealand supermarkets have reported a 20% hike in sales of free-range eggs compared with this time last year. Free-range eggs are typically supplied by smaller producers, with Woodland supplying more than 20% of all free-range eggs sold in New Zealand. EGG STAMPING A NZ FIRST A leading New Zealand free-range egg producer has fast-tracked the implementation of individual stamps of origin on its eggs after allegations that cage eggs have been marketed as being free-range. An ethical food marking system has been imported from the Netherlands, which uses safe food grade ink to mark each egg, and the Nuovo technology will see Woodland operating to the world standard for traceability Mainland Poultry - the largest free-range egg supplier in the country with its Woodland brand - has rushed the implementation of egg provenance so that consumers can be assured they are authentic. “As New Zealand’s leading producer of free-range eggs, we were naturally very concerned about recent allegations that a small number of cage eggs may have been marketed as being free-range,” managing director Michael Guthrie says. “This compelled us to fast-track our plans to guarantee the provenance of our eggs by providing complete traceability, from the farm to the consumer’s kitchen. The best way we can do this is to stamp each egg at the barn where we collect them, so there can be no question that it is, in fact, a genuine Woodland free-range egg.” An ethical food marking system has been imported from the Netherlands, which uses safe food grade ink to mark each egg, and the Nuovo technology will see Woodland operating to the world standard for traceability. Every egg will now bear the Woodland tree symbol and the code of the farm where the egg was laid. “It is a matter of principle for us to give our customers 100% confidence that Woodland eggs are genuinely free-range,” Guthrie says. Woodland hens wander in pastures at sites in Glenpark and Ti Kouka in the Waitaki area of the South Island, he says, and forage for natural food like insects, plants, grains and legumes as INNOVATION
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