Tesco.com - Competition Commission

Tesco response to increased interest in the welfare of chickens and eggs that are sold in our supermarkets.

We are actively promoting barn, free range and organic eggs by giving them more shelf space and we have recently introduced 14 regional varieties of free range eggs which are Freedom Farm approved. We have reduced the shelf space given to eggs from caged hens and have introduced clearer marking of eggs from caged hens on the front of pack.

That said, we do serve a broad range of customers so we will continue to offer a range of standard eggs that are all clearly labelled so that shoppers can make informed choice. We always listen to our customers and many of them tell us they are on a tight budget and rely on us to provide affordable good quality food.

We take animal welfare extremely seriously and are the only major supermarket to carry out independent farm inspections over and above the assured chicken standard farm audits. We have offered and promoted free range and organic alternatives for years to enable customers to make an informed choice.

We have also recently introduced Willow Farm chicken, which is a more affordable welfare friendly option. We always listen to our customers and many of them tell us they are on a tight budget and rely on us to provide affordable good quality food.

Tesco response to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s programme on Channel 4

We engaged with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on several occasions. As you could see from the film, we were happy to let him film in our store and provided him with our sales figures for the week of his free range chicken experiment. In addition, our agricultural manager travelled to Devon to spend the day with Hugh to discuss Tesco's policy on chicken and our high welfare standards. We are disappointed that this was not reflected in the programme. We made it clear from the start that we did not believe the only way to engage with Hugh for this programme was with a filmed interview.