Why consumers buy cage-free eggs may surprise you

Consumers view free-range and cage-free eggs as more nutritious and safer and are less concerned by the hen’s welfare than may have been thought.A new Australian study looking at the motivation behind purchases of free-range and cage-free eggs has found that consumer motivation is not simply driven by concern for the laying hen.Shoppers selecting these types of eggs may be less concerned by the perceived benefits for hens of these production systems, and more interested in the benefits that they, as consumers, might accrue from eating free-range or cage free-eggs.The study, conducted by the University of Adelaide, found that consumers choose to buy free-range or cage-free eggs because they believe that they taste better and are of a better quality than eggs from caged layers. And despite participants describing conventional cage production as “cruel,” they did not tend to emphasize welfare reasons as being critical for their purchases.