to eat eggs from caged hens?

[ChickenWashingDilemma]

Trying to distract myself, thought AIBU was as good a place as any to hide from real tasks of the day! Warning: Very middle class, having-the-money-to-be-able-to-choose problem.

I am lucky in that I can afford free range eggs. I don't eat much meat as I would prefer to eat higher welfare less often than cheap meat more often. But in the supermarket I managed to pick up eggs from caged hens. I never buy these, don't know how I did it, but noticed when I got home.

I talked to OH about them and he said he would not eat them. But I cannot bring myself to throw them away as to me that seems worse than using them. At least the produce is being used. I would never buy them again through choice but what to do?

I have already eaten 2 so it is a bit of a moot point but what would you have done? I just want to get rid of them as quickly a possible without throwing them away. (I have since been told that I might have been able to return them but had not considered that you can return foodstuffs just because you pick up the wrong thing)

So if the choice was between eat them or chuck them, AIBU to eat them?

I didn't know you could still buy battery farmed/barn eggs.

YANBU... Throwing good food away is wrong. Caging chickens is wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right.... etc.

give them to your local food bank

I think now, the welfare of caged hens is a lot better than it used to be, and battery farmed eggs don't exist. I may be talking out of my arse, but as long as they are British caged hens then they are ok from a welfare point of view.

You could definitely have returned them in their original condition with a valid receipt BEFORE you ate two!

Just make a massive omelette, put it down to experience and move on. T'will be all right.

I would use them . I always do

But I'm on a budget

So you got them by mistake, you normally buy eggs from chicken that have had better welfare. I'd either eat them or give them away. I would not chuck them, this achieves nothing.

Back to the real tasks, is it cleaning, paperwork, phone calls or meeting difficult clients?!

I would eat them, because I hate waste, but caged hen eggs make me vv sad.

Maybe write to the supermarket asking them to stop stocking caged eggs? I don't think co-op sells them at all, even their value eggs are free range, and they don't seem to have gone bankrupt.

Or find a nice little old man with a flick of hobby chickens and buy them from him (or swap for cake, as I often do!).

There was a programme on tv the other day where they were saying that it's not actually possible to supply the whole country with free range eggs, as it would require an area the size of Dorset! Not sure that helps with your decision, but I thought it was interesting, as I'd never thought about the logistics of it. I always buy Organic free range myself.

I couldn't mentally eat them but I would have no problem with someone else eating them. I agree that if you can't return them (I would) it is better environmentally to not throw them out.

I had a non free range chicken ready meal delivered by accident (didn't notice til the driver left) - couldn't throw it out, couldn't eat it - so cooked it for the dog

Can you cook the eggs for a dog - yours, someone else's?

Just eat them fgs! It won't kill you, just don't buy them again if you can help it.

Would you eat anything egg based in a restaurant? If so, then it is likely that you would have eaten eggs from caged hens then too.

I wouldnt purposely buy anything other than free range, but I also wouldnt throw away or waste them if I did it by accident either.

Well having bought them, it's Ok to eat them I think.

I would never, ever buy them. But we keep our own chickens and I don't really bake or cook with eggs, don't like them much tbh.

Perhaps if the eggs we produced were more expensive and harder to get hold of, people would use fewer and not just buy hundreds of poorly produced ones because they are so cheap?

I think that would be a result. Battery farming is shit.

You've already bought them, so I'd eat them. I loathe food going to waste. I also keep chickens, so am against caged birds as a rule. Think of all the times you've eaten cakes in cafes/at friends' houses which may have contained eggs from caged birds. Or eaten caged chicken in restaurants/take aways without knowng. I'm sure I have over the years. I try to avoid all chicken/products unless they of high welfare, but the reality is if I go to someone's house for dinner and they give me chicken, I don't go rifling through their bin checking it's free range.

Eat them, would be far worse to throw them away.

A lot of free range hens never see the outside world anyway, they have the option but they were hatched inside and stay inside. Their living conditions meet the criteria (x amount of outside space per hen for x amount of hours or something like that) but they are not living the free range dream. I just get eggs from friends or family if I need them.

I would make cakes with them.

I wouldn't buy them, but if I had bought them by accident and it wasn't possible to take them back, then I certainly would eat them. It would be worse not to.

Google says that although 'barren'? cages are banned by the EU over 60% of eggs produced and consumed in the UK are still from caged hens.

Disguise them in a cake.

I would eat them this time and be extra careful not to buy them again. Our neighbour gave us a few bits of perishable food before she went on holiday to avoid it going to waste, and there were eggs from caged hens in that. I struggled about what to do, but in the end we ate them.

I would normally buy free-range given the choice, but certainly wouldn't throw away perfectly good food for a reason like that. What would that achieve?