COMPULSORY MARKING OF EGGS.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 58, 12 March 1929, Page 14

COMPULSORY MARKING OF EGGS.

The compulsory marking of imported eggs, Empire and foreign alike, has now. been definitely fixed: Dried eggs as from 21st March next, and eggs in shell as from 21st April (writes "The Post's" London correspondent). ..The Order in Council requires that every imported egg must be stamped in ink/swith an indication of origin. in , letters" not less than two millimetres in height. The indication of originl may be either the word "Umpire"'or the' word "Foreign," as the case may be, or a definite indication of the, country of origin. Next month there will also comeinto operation the egg regulations under the Agricultural Produce (Grading and; Marking) Act, 1928. Applications to. be- ( come accredited packers under the scheme for home-produced eggs have been received from over eighty persons, companies, ami co-operative societies, and it is expected that the.) number of approved applicants will have reached a'hundred by the time the Order comes into operation. Unlike the marking of imported eggs, the English scheme ;is only voluntary, but is so devised that it will not pay to keep out of: it. The national mark is to be used as a label for packages of tested and graded eggs. The mark consists of a silhouette o£ Great Britain-and the national flag, with the inscription "produce of England and Wales.",.; Permission to use.it' is f given by the National Mark Committee to'those packing stations that satisfy the marking requirements of the scheme. This distinguishing between', home-produced eggs and imported may for a time keep-up the.price of English eggs, but in the long runimported eggs will come into their: ; own again. Moreover, New Zealand, and Australian eggs reach this' markets''at a time when English and Continental egg ; ' production is at its lowest.