Centennial Review: A revisiting of hen welfare and egg safety consequences of mandatory outdoor access for organic egg production

Mandating free range husbandry as a requirement for organic egg designation remains a prevailing sentiment within a segment of the organic community. The proponents maintain that such management practice ensures high hen welfare and enhanced wholesomeness of the egg. However, evidence from the field, especially in the European Union (EU), contradicts these assumptions. In many cases, hens allowed outdoor access were more subject to increased injury from predators and from flock mates, disease was more prevalent and generally more severe, and, as a result, higher mortality was routinely observed in these individuals compared with those raised indoors. The safety of eggs from free range hens is also questionable. Outdoor access compromises biosecurity efforts to curtail interaction of hens with rodents and wild birds, increasing the risk of flock Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis infection and consequent production of Salmonella-contaminated eggs. Even more serious, soil contaminated with dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls, carcinogenic industrial by-products widespread in the environment, can be ingested by hens foraging outdoors. These compounds will subsequently be deposited into the egg yolks, many times at high levels, creating a serious food safety issue for the consuming public. Such findings provide evidence that hens exposed to a free-range environment may exhibit neither an enhanced welfare nor produce the safe wholesome egg that consumers expect.