REMARKABLE INDUSTRY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 144, 3 June 1936, Page 5

REMARKABLE INDUSTRY

No “Bad Eggs” in Canada GOVERNMENT GRADING Canadians eat more eggs per capita than any other people 111 the world. What is more, Government experts declare that it is almost impossible lor a Canadian consumer to be served with a really bad egg with his bacon lor breaklast. These facts are contained in a report by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. There are no “bad eggs” in Canada because Canada has a remarkable system of egg grading controlled and supervised by a Government department of agriculture from producer io consumer. Canada was tho first country in the world to adopt egg grading in any form. This was in 1918 when the Dominion had a substantial egg surplus and the British market loomed invitingly as a possible outlet.

Officials ot the Dominion Department of Agriculture decided, in order to establish a market standard of quality, that all eggs exported to other countries, as well as those shipped from one province to another, should be graded on quality, size and cleanliness and that the grades should be plainly indicated.

Introduction of graded eggs on the British market established an enviable reputation lor Canadian eggs because wholesalers, retailers and consumers knew exactly what they were getting. As for Canada itself, the per capita consumption or eggs is nearly 400 per year, or more than one egg a clay for each Canadian In 1935 Canadians ate 222,266,100 dozen eggs. During the same year Canadian hens laid 223,250,000 dozen eggs ; 26,812 dozen were impoited ami 1.30©,7-12 dozen were exported. Canada’s hen-laying population totals 25,000,000 and apparently even the hens are patriotic enough to want to maintain the country’s splendid industry. In 1929, for instance, the average production of eggs pci hen was 95; by 1933 it had risen to 112.