Lawsuit Leads Trader Joes To Drop Misleading Cage-Free Egg Packaging

The Animal
Legal Defense Fund has settled in its consumer protection lawsuit against Trader
Joe’s, with the retail giant agreeing to pull misleading cage-free egg
packaging from shelves nationwide.

Misrepresentation

The
organisation filed the suit in response to the images of chickens in lush, green, open
spaces found on the packaging – which gives consumers the wrong idea about what
they’re paying for.

Even
cage-free eggs come from hens who’ve spent their lives in confined,
industrialised, indoor spaces.

Animal
Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells said: “It’s important for consumers to realise
that ‘cage-free’ doesn’t mean ‘cruelty-free’.”

Regulations

Wells also
explained that an increasingly conscientious buying climate, it’s all too easy for
companies to misrepresent their products.

He said: “There’s
widespread confusion among consumers about egg labeling due to the failure of
the federal government to properly regulate egg labels.

“Unfortunately,
the lack of labeling regulations allows egg producers to mislead consumers with
undefined terms like ‘natural,’ ‘cage-free’, and ‘free range’, or with slogans
and imagery depicting idyllic scenarios that do not match the cruel reality of
life for most laying hens.”