Natural Shoppers Affiliation and Richman Legislation & Coverage filed a criticism towards Eggland’s Greatest on Thursday, March 14 within the District of Columbia Superior Courtroom. The criticism alleges that Eggland’s Greatest, in violation of the District of Columbia Client Safety Procedures Act, deceptively markets its “Basic Eggs” with claims regarding packaging recyclability, animal welfare, and dietary superiority. 

Eggland’s Greatest, the criticism alleges, misleads customers by advertising and marketing its eggs as:

• Coming from caged hens which can be “all the time dealt with … humanely” and have area “enough for regular perform and conduct.”
• Delivered “in probably the most environment-friendly manner” in polystyrene cartons which can be “recyclable” and accepted by “an increasing number of communities . . . of their recycling applications.”
• Offering “Superior Diet” together with that the eggs include fewer energy, and fewer ldl cholesterol and whole fats, than “strange eggs.”

Opposite to Eggland’s Greatest’s claims that its eggs are superior to “strange eggs” in environmental sustainability, animal welfare, and vitamin, Natural Shoppers Affiliation alleges that Eggland’s Greatest eggs are:

• Produced by hens raised in cages that aren’t enough for regular perform or conduct; 
• Packaged in polystyrene that isn’t “environmentally pleasant” or typically recyclable; and 
• Not nutritionally superior to different eggs. 

To view the criticism, observe this link. A abstract of the info, as outlined within the criticism, is under.

When you don’t respect Eggland’s Greatest’s deceptive claims about its eggs, allow them to know by commenting on their posts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

Eggland’s Greatest eggs are packaged in polystyrene that isn’t “environmentally pleasant” or typically recyclable.

Eggland’s Greatest’s web site incorporates a daring “SUSTAINABILITY” header and states that it pledges to ship its eggs to customers “in probably the most environment-friendly manner.”

Eggland’s Greatest states that it selected to package deal its eggs in polystyrene as a result of its polystyrene foam cartons are “recyclable” and “an increasing number of communities are accepting this packaging of their recycling applications.”

These recyclability and sustainability representations are deceptive.

Most curbside recycling applications in the USA don’t settle for polystyrene supplies or have the potential to recycle them.

When despatched to a landfill, polystyrene can take 500 years to decompose and may leach chemical substances into the encircling surroundings.

The District of Columbia, the place we filed our criticism, and lots of states, together with Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont have banned the sale and distribution of polystyrene foam totally, or in sure circumstances.

Particularly, the District of Columbia prohibits any “meals service entity [from] . . .promote[ing] or provid[ing] meals in expanded polystyrene meals service merchandise, no matter the place the meals will likely be consumed.”

The District of Columbia equally prohibits any “retailer [from] promote[ing] or supply[ing] on the market an expanded polystyrene meals service product, expanded polystyrene container, or expanded polystyrene packing materials.”

Within the District of Columbia, polystyrene foam is just not accepted for recycling.

The Federal Commerce Fee’s (“FTC”) Inexperienced Guides state that “[m]arketers ought to clearly and prominently qualify recyclable claims to the extent essential to keep away from deception concerning the availability of recycling applications and assortment websites to customers.” Particularly, when recycling isn’t extensively accessible the place the merchandise is offered, “entrepreneurs ought to qualify all recycling claims.”

Eggland’s Greatest’s use of the phrases “sustainability” and “recyclable” and its illustration that it delivers its eggs “within the most-environment pleasant manner” are deceptive as a result of they create the overall impression for cheap customers that the packaging gives environmental advantages that it doesn’t have.

Eggland’s Greatest’s environmental and recyclability representations about its packaging are materials to customers who care about making environmentally aware buying selections and who imagine that they’ll reduce their environmental affect by recycling the packaging.

A 2021 Amcor survey of 12,000 customers throughout six international locations, together with United States customers, discovered that 78% of customers wish to recycle extra and discover recyclability to be the “most essential sustainability attribute for packaging.”

A 2020 McKinsey survey of United States customers discovered that “43 p.c of customers . . . say environmental affect is a particularly or crucial packaging attribute when making buying selections.”

That very same McKinsey survey discovered that almost all customers are prepared to pay extra for sustainable packaging, and four-to-seven p.c of customers are prepared to pay a premium effectively above ten p.c.

That very same McKinsey survey discovered that “[m]ost customers don’t have a powerful understanding of which packaging sorts are extra sustainable.”

A survey of 9,000 consumers throughout North America, South America, and Europe printed in 2023 discovered that almost all of customers search for details about recyclability or sustainability on product packaging. The identical survey additionally discovered that 79% of customers are in search of merchandise in sustainable packaging and 82% are prone to buy a product based mostly on recyclable packaging claims.

Eggland’s Greatest’s advertising and marketing misrepresents the recyclability of their eggs’ packaging and misleads customers.

Eggland’s Greatest eggs are produced by hens raised in cages that aren’t enough for regular perform or conduct.

Eggland’s Greatest claims that its caged hens:

• “are wholesome and have enough area, mild, air flow, water, and feed

and are shielded from harm”;

• “are all the time dealt with and transported humanely”; and
• reside “in cages . . . enough for regular perform and conduct.”

As our criticism states, opposite to Eggland’s Greatest’s advertising and marketing, egg-laying hens raised in standard caged methods are solely allotted, on common, 67 sq. inches per fowl. By comparability, a typical sheet of printer paper is over 90 sq. inches.

The American Veterinary Medical Affiliation (“AVMA”) states that “many pure behaviors can’t be carried out in conventionally sized [] cages.” Whereas the AVMA defines a traditional cage as a “wire enclosure housing Three to six birds,” producers generally exceed this stocking density, such that “in business manufacturing . . . birds are generally housed on the density of seven to eight birds per cage.”

The AVMA has decided that standard cages prohibit hens’ means to precise their pure conduct, together with proscribing mud bathing, strolling, foraging, roosting, and nesting.

Equally, the AVMA has discovered that caged hens are unable to carry out “consolation behaviors,” corresponding to wing flapping, stretching, physique shakes, and tail wagging. Pure behaviors like nesting and roosting are unattainable in caged housing.

As a result of egg-laying hens raised in battery cages are unable to precise their pure behaviors, they typically carry out repetitive, stress-induced behaviors as an alternative, like feather plucking, pecking at different chickens, and “vacuum nesting” the place a hen will “mime” making a nest.

Furthermore, in keeping with the AVMA, cages improve the chance of hens getting trapped between wires and creating extreme foot injury ensuing from overgrown claws.

Equally, as a result of battery cages generally have mesh flooring, which locations extra strain on hens’ ft, caged hens are susceptible to creating toe pad hyperkeratosis, a painful situation which causes lesions.

Hens raised in battery cages are so intensely confined that they’re unable to train adequately, making them significantly susceptible to creating osteoporosis. This downside is so widespread that one research discovered that, on the finish of a laying cycle, 24% of all birds faraway from their cages suffered from damaged bones.

In standard cages, hens don’t have any outside entry, which will increase stress and reduces exercise. In distinction, hens who take pleasure in outside entry endure much less feather injury and footpad dermatitis, and have a greater digestive and intestine perform than that of hens saved indoors.

Generally used confinement practices within the egg trade trigger poor animal welfare and prohibit fundamental motion and expression of pure behaviors in hens, which might induce excessive ranges of stress within the animals. On account of excessive confinement, hens expertise musculoskeletal weaknesses, power illnesses corresponding to fatty liver, metabolic illnesses, and spinal compression.

Ailments corresponding to salmonella an infection constantly unfold at increased charges amongst caged hens.

Caged hens are susceptible to illness outbreaks attributable to flock measurement and better density of hens, and elements corresponding to the amount of fecal mud, presence of disease-carrying rodents, the issue of correctly disinfecting cages, the lack of hens to accumulate pure intestine flora in wire cages, and the physiological stress attributable to confinement. Power or extended stress has been discovered to inhibit animals’ immune response to an infection, can improve illness unfold, and may impair the immune system.

Eggland’s Greatest’s claims that its battery cages present enough area for hens to exhibit regular perform and conduct instantly contradict the rising scientific consensus in regards to the detrimental welfare impacts on hens saved and raised in such circumstances of utmost confinement.

The Humane Society of the USA carried out an undercover investigation of Turner Egg Farm in Maine, which is owned by Eggland’s Greatest provider Hillendale Farms, which revealed hens that routinely endure from illness, harm, ache, and misery, usually are not dealt with “humanely,” and can’t exhibit pure behaviors.

The Humane Society’s undercover investigator documented hens (1) “confined in cages packed so tightly, the animals couldn’t unfold their wings”; (2) “pressured to share their cages with the decaying carcasses of their useless cage-mates”; (3) “discovered trapped by their necks, wings, and ft within the rusty wire cages”; (4) “coated in different birds’ waste”; and with (5) “bloody prolapses” and “horrendous facial abnormalities.” 

The investigator noticed “excessive ammonia saturation” within the hens’ barns. 

Photographs included within the complaint depict among the hens as seen by the investigator, which reveal the filthy and cramped circumstances wherein the hens have been dwelling, in addition to hens which can be trapped and in any other case affected by prolapses and accidents inside their cages.

The egg-laying hens who lay eggs for Eggland’s Greatest are usually subjected to inhumane circumstances and routinely endure from illness, harm, ache, and misery. Eggland’s Greatest misrepresents the therapy of its egg-laying hens on its web site.

A 2021 survey of 4,292 customers from throughout fourteen international locations, together with customers from the USA, discovered that these customers are more and more involved about animal welfare and improved therapy and circumstances for farmed animals, together with that of egg-laying hens.

That survey discovered “that almost all individuals throughout all international locations eat eggs, most state that it issues to them that hens don’t endure within the course of of manufacturing the eggs they eat, and importantly, a majority of individuals in most international locations . . . would favor . . . to buy eggs from hens not saved in cages.”

A 2018 survey of 1,000 United States customers discovered that the massive majority of respondents are involved with the welfare of animals raised for meals, together with egg-laying hens, and that the welfare of those animals is essential when making buying selections.

A 2015 survey carried out by Client Experiences discovered that 84% of customers say that “offering higher dwelling circumstances for animals” is a key goal when looking for meals.

Shoppers are more and more involved about whether or not chickens raised for meals are handled, dealt with, and raised humanely.

A survey carried out by the National Chicken Council, an trade commerce group, discovered that 46.8% of customers worth animal welfare when deciding to buy hen merchandise. 

Globally, customers are involved concerning the ethical implications of animal manufacturing methods on farm animal welfare and have more and more demanded moral manufacturing and refused to buy merchandise that don’t meet their animal welfare considerations.

Eggland’s Greatest’s advertising and marketing of its eggs—which suggests to customers that its basic eggs come from hens which can be raised in circumstances that permit for them to exhibit “regular perform and conduct” and that Eggland’s Greatest’s egg-laying hens obtain “one of the best care potential”—misrepresents materials info which have the tendency to mislead customers.

Eggland’s Greatest’s eggs usually are not nutritionally superior to different eggs. 

Eggland’s Greatest falsely represents its eggs as nutritionally superior to strange eggs. On each package deal and on its web site, Eggland’s Greatest states that its eggs include “25% Much less Saturated Fats than Common Eggs.” 

Eggland’s Greatest claims that the eggs present “superior vitamin,” indicated by a “Superior Nutrition” header on the web site. Eggland’s Greatest additionally makes particular claims concerning the dietary superiority of Eggland’s Greatest’s eggs as in comparison with different eggs and offers a chart asserting that, compared side-by-side, the eggs present “higher vitamin” than “strange” (i.e., non-Eggland’s Greatest-branded) eggs.

Eggland’s Greatest’s claims of dietary superiority embody claims that (1) their eggs include 60 energy per egg, in comparison with 70 energy per “strange” egg; (2) their eggs include 170 milligrams of ldl cholesterol, in comparison with 185 milligrams per “strange” egg; (3) their eggs include Four grams of fats per egg, in comparison with 5 grams per “strange” egg; and (4) their eggs include 1 gram of saturated fats, in comparison with 1.5 grams per “strange” egg.

Eggland’s Greatest’s vitamin representations are deceptive to customers.

Opposite to Eggland’s Greatest’s on-label and on-line representations, their eggs do not in truth include “25% much less saturated fats,” fewer energy, much less whole fats, saturated fats, and ldl cholesterol than different eggs, and are due to this fact not “nutritionally superior” to strange eggs, as these claims are understood by cheap customers.

Impartial investigations have discovered that Eggland’s Greatest eggs don’t include fewer energy or much less whole fats, saturated fats, or ldl cholesterol than different eggs, and are due to this fact not “nutritionally superior.”

A 2016 Truth in Advertising investigation discovered that Eggland’s Greatest’s eggs contained the identical dietary worth as “strange eggs” with regard to carbohydrates, trans fat, proteins, monosaturated fats, vitamin A, and Omega-6 fatty acids.

Latest unbiased laboratory testing of Eggland’s Greatest’s basic eggs commissioned by our legal professionals and carried out by Anresco Laboratories in August 2023 discovered that Eggland’s Greatest’s dietary claims as to energy, fats, saturated fats, and ldl cholesterol do not comport with the precise dietary worth. Particularly, that testing discovered that:

• Whereas Eggland’s Greatest states that their eggs include 60 energy per serving, as in comparison with 70 energy in an strange egg, the unbiased laboratory research discovered roughly 68.13 energy per serving.
• Whereas Eggland’s Greatest states that their eggs have Four grams of fats per serving, as in comparison with 5 grams in strange eggs, the unbiased laboratory research discovered 4.93 grams of fats per serving.
• Whereas Eggland’s Greatest states that their eggs have only one gram of saturated fats, as in comparison with 1.5 grams in strange eggs, the unbiased laboratory research discovered 2.84 grams of saturated fats per serving.
• Whereas Eggland’s Greatest states that their eggs include 170 milligrams of ldl cholesterol, as in comparison with 185 milligrams in strange eggs, the unbiased laboratory research discovered that their eggs have 205.49 milligrams of ldl cholesterol per serving.

Eggland’s Greatest has misrepresented that their eggs include fewer energy and fewer fats, saturated fats, and ldl cholesterol than strange eggs.

Eggland’s Greatest’s eggs usually are not truly “nutritionally superior.”

Eggland’s Greatest’s claims matter to D.C. customers who care about buying meals with diminished energy, fats, saturated fats, and ldl cholesterol.

A 2014 survey of two,234 United States customers discovered that 78% of Child Boomers “thought of the saturated fats content material in a product as a really or considerably essential driver for his or her determination whether or not they buy a product or not.”

A 2019 study reviewing eleven surveys polling greater than 2,000 people discovered that dietary and well being claims on meals packaging could make meals merchandise “appear more healthy than they’re” and such claims “can affect customers’ perceptions.”

A 2020 study of 1,000 United States customers discovered that 36% of customers search out “low fats” meals.

Eggland’s Greatest’s advertising and marketing of their eggs as containing fewer energy, and much less fats, saturated fats, and ldl cholesterol, and as being “nutritionally superior”—which offers customers with the impression that their eggs include dietary and well being advantages over different eggs—misrepresents the info and is deceptive.

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