There are very good reasons why many countries have governing bodies checking to make sure that what the business says it’s selling, it’s actually selling. But one couple in England thought they could pull a fast one on customers and regulators when they ran low on free-range eggs, aided with a bunch of chickens wandering in a yard and some plain packaging.

The BBC  says the couple are being prosecuted and fined after dressing intensively farmed eggs up as those of the free-range variety.

See, they already had the chickens wandering around in their garden, but those hens apparently weren’t producing enough eggs to support their business lately. Officials say they instead put the farmed eggs in plain boxes and let the chickens do their business to convince customers of the free-rangeness.

Inquiries by local authorities turned up evidence that instead, 12,000 eggs had been bought from a large supplier.

The couple was slapped with fines and a couple thousand bucks in overall costs for the offenses of failing to identify the supplier of the eggs, failing to declare the eggs were not from their own flock, selling eggs with the producer’s stamps removed and selling eggs in a misleading manner. All those are covered under England’s General Food Regulations Act.

Dorset couple prosecuted for free-range eggs fraud [BBC]

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